殺

• In traditional Chinese (based on the modern character forms used in Taiwan and Hong Kong), the bottom left component is 朮 (𣎳 with an additional dot at its top right corner).
• In mainland China (based on the Xin Zixing (新字形) standardized character forms), the bottom left component is 朩 instead which is one stroke less.
• In Korean hanja, the bottom left component is 术, which is also the historical form found in the Kangxi dictionary.
• In Japanese shinjitai and Vietnamese Nôm, the bottom left component is 木 which is one stroke less.
• Three CJK Compatibility Ideographs exist for this character:
  • U+F970 corresponds to the Japanese kyūjitai form containing 术 which is similar to the historical Kangxi form.
  • U+FA96 corresponds to the alternative Korean form which is similar to the Japanese shinjitai form containing 木.
  • U+2F8F5 is similar to the traditional form in Taiwan but has 𣎳 (without dot at top right corner) instead of 朮 as its bottom left component.

殺 (Kangxi radical 79, 殳+7 in traditional Chinese and Korean, 殳+6 in mainland China and Japanese, 11 strokes in traditional Chinese and Korean, 10 strokes in mainland China and Japanese, cangjie input 大金竹弓水 (KCHNE) or 大木竹弓水 (KDHNE), four-corner 4794₇, composition ⿰⿱㐅朩殳(G) or ⿰⿱㐅朮殳(HT) or ⿰⿱㐅木殳(JV or U+FA96) or ⿰⿱㐅术殳(K or U+F970) or ⿰⿱㐅𣎳殳(U+2F8F5))

• 杀 (Simplified Chinese)

• 摋, 𣻑, 樧/榝, 䊛, 鎩, 蔱, 𪄅

• Kangxi Dictionary: page 585, character 11
• Dai Kanwa Jiten: character 16638
• Dae Jaweon: page 978, character 5
• Hanyu Da Zidian (first edition): volume 3, page 2157, character 1
• Unihan data for U+6BBA

• Unihan data for U+F970

• Unihan data for U+FA96

• Unihan data for U+2F8F5

Historical forms of the character 殺
Shang	Shuowen Jiezi (compiled in Han)
Oracle bone script	Small seal script

In the oracle bone script, it was an ideogrammic compound (會意／会意) of a boar that had been impaled in the head.

In the seal script, the original compound was corrupted into 𣏂 (sometimes written as 杀). It was also in the seal script that the pictogram (象形) : 人 (“person”) + 又 (“right hand”), which was later corrupted into 殳 (“spear”) or 攴, was added under the head of the boar to specify the killing was done by a person.

The modern-day character inherits this and can be thought of as a phono-semantic compound (形聲／形声, OC *sreːds, *sreːd) : phonetic 𣏂 () + semantic 殳 (“spear”).

From Proto-Sino-Tibetan *g/b-sat (“to kill”); compare Tibetan བསད (bsad), perfect of Tibetan གསོད (gsod, “to kill”), Proto-Lolo-Burmese *C-sat (“to kill”), Japhug sat (“to kill”) (STEDT; Schuessler, 2007; Zhang, Jacques and Lai, 2019).

殺

1. (transitive) to kill; to murder

   我殺咗隻烏蠅。 [Cantonese, trad.]
   我杀咗只乌蝇。 [Cantonese, simp.]

   ngo⁵ saat³ zo² zek³ wu¹ jing^4-1. [Jyutping]

   I killed a fly.

2. to ruin; to harm
3. to fight

   殺出一條血路／杀出一条血路  ―  shā chū yī tiáo xuèlù  ―  (please add an English translation of this usage example)

4. (dialectal, transitive) to cut; to slice (fruit, food)

   殺西瓜／杀西瓜  ―  shā xīguā  ―  to cut a watermelon

5. (transitive) to abate; to reduce

   殺價／杀价  ―  shājià  ―  to bargain

6. (regional, colloquial) to sting
7. (chess) to mate; short for 將殺／将杀 (jiāngshā) ("to checkmate")
8. (Hokkien) ruthless; ferocious; fierce
9. (Hokkien) to butcher, especially by using a blade to drain its blood to death (of animals)

   殺雞／杀鸡 [Hokkien]  ―  soah koe [Pe̍h-ōe-jī]  ―  to butcher a chicken by draining its blood with a knife

10. (Taiwanese Hokkien) willing to part with something

• Normally, the subject of 殺 should be animate. The sentence "A tiger killed many people." can be validly translated as 老虎殺死數人, while the sentence "This accident killed many people." is seldom translated as *這次事故殺死數人. For death caused by non-living things, split forms of 致死 (zhìsǐ) are often used instead:

  這次事故致數人死亡。 [MSC, trad.]
  这次事故致数人死亡。 [MSC, simp.]

  Zhè cì shìgù zhì shù rén sǐwáng. [Pinyin]

  This accident caused many people's deaths.

• (to kill):

From 衰 (OC *sʰrol, *srul, “to diminish; to decay”) + final *-t (Schuessler, 2007).

殺

1. ^† to pare off; to diminish; to reduce; to clip

   • 隆殺之義辨矣。 [Classical Chinese, trad.]
     隆杀之义辨矣。 [Classical Chinese, simp.]

     From: Xunzi, c. 3^rd century BCE

     Lóngshā zhī yì biàn yǐ. [Pinyin]

     The principle of increase and dimunution (of sumptuary allowances) is defined.

殺

1. ^† dark
2. Alternative form of 𥻦 (“to spread; to exile”)

殺

1. Only used in 蹩殺／蹩杀.

殺

1. Only used in 降殺／降杀.

• “殺”, in 漢語多功能字庫 (Multi-function Chinese Character Database)‎^[2], 香港中文大學 (the Chinese University of Hong Kong), 2014–

Shinjitai	殺
Kyūjitai [1][2]	殺 殺 or 殺+︀?
	殺󠄀 殺+󠄀? (Adobe-Japan1)
	殺󠄃 殺+󠄃? (Hanyo-Denshi) (Moji_Joho)
The displayed kanji may be different from the image due to your environment. See here for details.

(Fifth grade kyōiku kanji, shinjitai kanji, kyūjitai form 殺)

1. to kill

From Middle Chinese 殺 (MC sreat):

• Go-on: せち (sechi)、せつ (setsu, Jōyō ^†)
• Kan-on: さつ (satsu, Jōyō)

From Middle Chinese 殺 (MC sreajH):

• Go-on: せい (sei)
• Kan-on: さい (sai, Jōyō ^†)
• Kan’yō-on: さつ (satsu, Jōyō)

From native Japanese roots:

• Kun: ころす (korosu, 殺す, Jōyō)、あやめる (ayameru, 殺める)、そぐ (sogu, 殺ぐ)、へらす (herasu, 殺らす)

From Middle Chinese 殺 (MC sreat).

• (SK Standard/Seoul) IPA^(key): [sʰa̠ɭ]
• Phonetic hangul: [살]

 

Korean Wikisource has texts containing the hanja:

殺

Wikisource

殺 (eumhun 죽일 살 (jugil sal))

1. hanja form^? of 살 (“to kill”)

From Middle Chinese 殺 (MC sreajH).

• (SK Standard/Seoul) IPA^(key): [sʰwɛ(ː)] ~ [sʰwe̞(ː)]
• Phonetic hangul: [쇄(ː)/쉐(ː)]
  • Though still prescribed in Standard Korean, most speakers in both Koreas no longer distinguish vowel length.