Definitions
a watchman's rattle
Etymology
About
柝 is a phono-semantic compound: the left side is the wood radical 木, marking the material of the instrument, and the right side 斥 functions as the phonetic. Historically, the character refers to a wooden watchman's clapper, a hollow block struck to mark the hours or sound an alarm at night. Because this device was crucial for nighttime security and military encampments, the character became deeply associated with night patrols and city defenses in classical Chinese texts.
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