犬

It is a pictograph based on the shape of a dog.

Besides 犬, there is also the character 狗 (dog, 구) that refers to a dog. Although their meanings are similar, there is a clear difference originally: 犬 referred to a large dog, while 狗 referred to a small dog or puppy. However, in modern Korea, this distinction has blurred, and since 狗 is used less often compared to 犬, the difference is almost lost.

In contrast, in Chinese, 犬 and 狗 are still clearly distinguished and commonly used differently. 犬 has a literary tone referring to dog species or subspecies, while 狗 is more commonly used in everyday speech to mean a dog. Also, 狗 can carry a somewhat derogatory connotation.

When used as a radical (犭), 犬 can be confused with the hand radical 扌. Because both radicals are frequently used, OCR software often misreads one as the other in Chinese texts. For example, the character 狗 can be misread as 拘.