# 殊



## stupidGaijin

Hi and thanks for reading this thread!  I have a tattoo that i got when i was 16 and would love to know what it means..  I have literally no idea whether it is hirigana, katagana or kanji and i am embarrassed because i realise now that getting a tattoo without properly researching it first was a stupid thing to do.


Any help would be greatly appreciated


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## OBrasilo

Your tattoo is _殊_, and although it exists in Japanese, it doesn't have any meaning there by itself. But it means _it is_ in Chinese.

However, it also has three meaning in Japanese, even though I don't know, where they appear; _particularly_, _especially_, and _exceptionally_.
It's read as _shu_ in on-yomi, and as _koto_ in kun-yomi, and it's also read as _shu_ in Chinese, and as _su_ in Korean.


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## Matching Mole

Hi SG

It looks like one stroke from the right side has been attached to the left, but allowing that, the character must be SHU (koto) meaning "particularly" or "especially" (used in "koto ni"), as in "This is particularly important".

Bear in mind though, that tattoo pattern books are more often based on Chinese (this character exists in both languages). The root meaning will probably be similar, but perhaps used in a different way.

This is the character: 殊 I've also attached an image for you to compare.


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## ポール

OBrasilo said:


> Your tattoo is _殊_


Thanks for posting that - it was really bugging me that I couldn't remember it well enough to find (for some reason I was looking at ちゅ instead of しゅ - darn my flaky kanji memory).

Now that I've looked it up 殊の外 is the phrase I remember seeing it used in.


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## palomnik

In Chinese (shū), it means "unique" or "special." Not a very common character by itself in modern Chinese; the commonest modern combination it's in is 特殊 (tè shū) - "special" - which occurs in Japanese too (tokushū).

You're lucky, Gaijin.  Some people have character tatoos that are downright obscene, and would be incredibly embarrassed if they knew what they said.  You can consider yours to be a compliment!


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## Flaminius

A minor nitpick.



> 特殊 (tè shū) - "special" - which occurs in Japanese too (tokush*u*).


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## Mugi

Another small point - although this character is most commonly found these days in compounds that mean "outstanding" or "special", it's original meaning is "to behead".


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## Flaminius

Hi *Mugi*,


> [殊]'s original meaning is "to behead".


Chinese characters' original meanings are often bloody, magical and frank.  However, I could not find the beheading sense in my dictionaries, which trace the original meaning to "to kill" or "to die" after 說文解字.  Could you provide your source for us?


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## Mugi

> Could you provide your source for us?


Certainly. The Japanese 漢字源, zdic (check the 详细解释 and 康熙字典 tabs), and at least one regular Chinese-Chinese dictionary (although I can't recall which one now, as it was probably several years ago that I first looked up the classical meaning of 殊）. It's possible that the original meaning is simply "to die" or "to kill" as opposed to "behead" - I shall endeavor to do a little more research.


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## Mugi

Minor update:
The ABC Etymological Dictionary of Old Chinese defines 殊 as 1) "to cut off" and 2) "to kill; to die".


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## Charlotte Huang

Based on my understanding for the Chinese word 殊, it means special/outstanding/remarkable. But it means the last-ditch battle for 殊死战. It is quite easy for foreigners to mistake 殊 to *誅 *[to put to death; to execute; to kill.


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## Mugi

Charlotte, try the zdic link I posted above. 殊 and 誅 are quite possibly related, but in this instance it isn't a case of mistaken identity.


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## Charlotte Huang

Hi Mugi,

As suggested, I do checked again in Zdic.net for  
殊 with the followings:

不同：～途同归。悬～。
◎ 特别，很：～功。～荣。～勋。特～。
◎ 断，绝：～死。
It do has the meaning of "cut off" or "completely"  [殊死战 the last-ditch battle] but not "behead".  Personally, I think the meaning of tatoo is "outstanding" and "speical" as that for  殊功。殊荣。殊勋。


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## Mugi

Hi Charlotte,

Hmm, so what does 本义:斩首,断其首身而死 [本義:斬首,斷其首身而死] mean ...?

I agree that the intended meaning of the tattoo was probably "outstanding" or the like, but I am merely pointing out that this is not the only meaning, and indeed not the original meaning. Moreover, in modern Chinese 殊 tends to be bound (i.e. it comes in a two character compound); standing on its own makes it look like it is being used in its classical sense (i.e. to behead <-> to kill).


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## Charlotte Huang

Hi Mugi,
I didn't see 本义:斩首,断其首身而死 [本義:斬首,斷其首身而死].  Yes... 本义:斩首,断其首身而死 [本義:斬首,斷其首身而死] means behead.  Thanks.


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