Definitions
buskin; name of a tribe; turban
Etymology
About
鞨 (hé) is closely associated with 靺, the two characters together forming the well-known name of the Mohe, ancient nomadic tribes of northeastern Asia. Structurally, it is a phono-semantic compound that combines the semantic radical 革 (gé, 'leather, tanned hide') with the phonetic component 曷 (hé). The leather radical points to a physical object: in its original sense, the character referred to a particular type of leather shoe or a distinctive leather head covering or turban worn by northern peoples. Over time, the character moved away from these concrete garment meanings and evolved into a phonetic placeholder, used to represent the name of the culture itself in imperial Chinese historical records. Today, its usage is almost entirely restricted to this specific historical and ethnographic context.
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