Definitions
(noun)
beast; wild animal
(adjective)
brutal; savage
About
The character 兽, whose traditional form is 獸, originally depicted a hunting activity or captured game, with its earliest meanings relating to beasts caught in the hunt. Structurally, the traditional form 獸 is composed of 嘼, representing a vessel or pen for holding animals and providing phonetic suggestion, combined with the semantic component 犬, meaning dog, to classify the character within the animal domain. Over time, the meaning generalized from the specific act of hunting or the prey itself to encompass the broader category of wild beasts or animals, a semantic range it continues to hold today. The modern simplified form 兽 abstracts and streamlines this structure, retaining the top portion of 嘼 while replacing the 犬 below with a single horizontal line.
Etymology Hide
Example Sentences Hide
森林里有野兽。
兽医治疗生病动物。
动物园里有许多兽类。
猛兽通常生活在野外。
保护野生动物非常重要。
兽皮在古代被用作衣物。
人类与兽类共享这个星球。
科学家研究兽类的行为模式。