About
The character 馘 is a phono-semantic compound. Its semantic radical 首 (head) indicates the meaning, while the component 戓 provides the phonetic element. It refers specifically to the ancient military practice of severing the left ear of a slain enemy to count casualties and claim rewards. Due to this tightly defined connection to a historical battlefield atrocity, the character has no modern usage and appears only in classical texts describing methods of tallying military merit.
Etymology Hide
