Explore each form from the oldest known stage to today.
The kanji 枯 is a phono-semantic compound, formed during the Shuowen Jiezi era (c. 100 AD) in China. Its semantic component is 木 (ki), meaning "tree" or "wood." The phonetic component is 古 (ko/furu), which means "old" and also provides the core meaning of "drying out" or "passing of time." The character's fundamental concept is a tree that has aged and dried out, hence "to wither," "to decay," or "to die." Historically, the character evolved from this clear conceptual construction. It first appeared in seal script (篆書 tensho) and was standardized through clerical script (隷書 reisho) and into the regular script (楷書 kaisho) used today. The evolution was primarily structural, simplifying the brush strokes for easier writing while retaining the original composition of 木 and 古. This character, along with thousands of others, was introduced to Japan in waves, primarily from the 5th to 8th centuries AD, via Buddhist scriptures, classical Chinese texts, and official diplomatic exchanges. It was systematically adopted into the Japanese writing system. An interesting linguistic note is the interplay between the components. While 古 primarily acts as a phonetic marker, its own meaning of "antiquity" or "oldness" is semantically intertwined with the concept of withering, making the character exceptionally coherent. In Japanese, the kun'yomi "kareru" conveys a natural, gradual process of withering, as in leaves or plants, while the on'yomi "KO" is used in compounds like 枯渇 (kokatsu - depletion). This reflects a nuanced understanding where 枯 often implies a dry, desiccated state rather than mere death, distinguishing it from characters like 死 (shi - to die).