Meaning & readings
suffering, trial, worry, hardship, feel bitter, scowl
On’yomi ク
Kun’yomi くる.しい、-ぐる.しい、くる.しむ、くる.しめる、にが.い、にが.る
Origin
This character combines a grass radical at the top, which classifies it as a plant-related word, with the component 古 (old) at the bottom that serves as a sound hint for pronunciation. The character likely originated from a bitter plant or herb, since bitterness became the core meaning. From "bitter" as a physical taste sensation, the meaning expanded to "suffering" and "hardship" as abstract forms of unpleasantness. The grass element makes sense because many bitter medicinal plants would have been familiar to ancient Chinese speakers encountering this word.
Components
- 艹
- 古
A sound hint component points at the character’s pronunciation, not its meaning — don’t read a meaning into it.
Common words
Reference
- Strokes
- 8
- Kangxi radical
- 140
- Formation type
- Phono-semantic (meaning + sound hint)
- Grade
- Grade 3 (Kyōiku)
- Frequency rank
- #623 (newspapers)
- Former JLPT
- level 2
- Unicode
- U+082E6