About
The character 觚 is a phono-semantic compound, with the semantic radical 角 (horn) on the left and the phonetic component 瓜 on the right. It originally referred to a tall, slender wine vessel used in rituals, the horn radical suggesting its earliest forms were made from animal horns before later being cast in bronze. The meaning later extended to denote wooden writing tablets and also came to signify a corner, an angle, or a sharp edge, reflecting a shift from a concrete object to the geometric qualities associated with its angular form.
Etymology Hide
