考

kǎo

examine, test; investigate; deceased father; old age

Meaning

  • Intellectual/Investigative: To scrutinize, test for validity, investigate, or cross-reference against a standard.
  • Familial/Age-related: The deceased father; longevity or the state of being elderly.

Grammar and usage

  • Verb: Typically transitive when used in the sense of "examine" or "verify."
  • Noun: Refers to either a person (father, elder) or the concept of age.

Distinctions

  • Contrast with 父: While both refer to the father, 考 specifically denotes the deceased father.
  • Contrast with 老: In contexts where both appear, 老 typically refers to biological age, whereas 考 may imply a status of venerability or ancestral authority.

History and forms

  • Semantic Variant: U+6537.
  • Diachronic Usage: Familial senses often take precedence in early texts (e.g., //Classic of Poetry// or ritual manuals), while investigative senses are more prevalent in later administrative or philological contexts.

Graphical notes

  • Graphically linked to 老 (old).

Translator notes

  • There is a conceptual bridge between the "elder" and the "investigator," as the elder was often viewed as the possessor of knowledge capable of verifying facts.

Decontextualized translator aid. This page describes plausible lexical range; it does not choose what the glyph means in a particular passage.