刳

The core action is the removal of an interior core to leave a void. This applies to:

• Anatomical contexts: Evisceration, specifically the ripping out of internal organs (e.g., heart or liver), often associated with sacrifice or punishment.
• Material contexts: Hollowing out physical objects such as wood, bone, or stone to create a vessel or cavity.
• Metaphorical usage: In the compound 刳心 ("carving out the heart"), it can denote either extreme psychological agony/devastation or absolute, sacrificial sincerity and devotion.

Almost exclusively a transitive verb; the object is the entity being emptied.

When distinguishing from other verbs of cutting or removing:

• 刳 vs. 掘 (jué): 掘 refers to digging into the earth, whereas 刳 refers to hollowing out an object.
• 刳 vs. 剖 (pōu): 剖 is to split or cleave open.
• 刳 vs. 剜 (wān): 剜 is to gouge out a localized piece (e.g., an eye).
• 刳 vs. 剔 (tī): 剔 refers to precision removal, such as picking a bone from meat.

Reading is stable: Tang-period //ko//, Fanqie //kǔ-hú//, and modern //kū//.

The presence of 瓜 (melon) anchors the meaning to hollowing; in early scripts, the 匕 component represents a tool or scooping motion rather than "person."