鹿
deer; "deer" radical
Kanji 2025
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In parts of Japan (e.g., in Nara and Miyajima), deer are quite visible—so much so that oblivious people can't see the mountains for the deer, figuratively speaking. Because it's half of 馬鹿 (fool), this new Joyo kanji enables us to ridicule idiots (who have a contagious and incurable condition, by the way). As both a radical and an autonomous kanji, 鹿 appears in the names of several animals.
Revision history:
Sept. 30, 2024: p. 1: Removed two broken links.
June 22, 2021:
- p. 2: Added the Henshall etymology and deleted the previous one.
- p. 17: Added a link to the Kanshudo games.
Dec. 9, 2016:
- p. 1: Deleted this Character Profile note under the look-alikes: “When it comes to 鹿, ロク is a rarely used, non-Joyo on-yomi.” It IS a Joyo yomi, though rarely used.
- pp. 1 and 10: Removed broken links.
Nov. 21, 2014: p. 12 sidebar: Fixed a typo.
June 22, 2012: Originally published.
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