屠

A phono-semantic compound:

尸 (corpse) — semantic component

者 (person / one who does) — phonetic component

Originally, it referred specifically to killing livestock, especially in the context of meat preparation. Because butchery involved carcasses, the 尸 radical was used to indicate the semantic field of death.

Original sense:

- slaughtering animals

- butchery as an occupation

Came to denote butchers, including the traditional East Asian caste known as 백정 (白丁) in Korean society

Extended meaning:

- killing people in large numbers

- mass killing or massacre

Because of this semantic expansion, 屠 often appears in historical and military contexts.

도살 (屠殺) — slaughter; massacre

도성 (屠城) — massacre of a city (historical usage)

屠 carries a stronger and harsher connotation than general verbs meaning “to kill.”

It often implies:

- intentional violence

- systematic killing

- large-scale destruction

Classical and historical usage:

屠城 (tú chéng)

- to massacre a city

- in historical texts, when 屠 appears before a city name, it indicates that the city was captured and its inhabitants were slaughtered.

屠國 (tú guó)

- literally “to slaughter a state”

- paradoxically used in classical texts to mean “to govern a state”, this reflects an older conceptual link between severe control, punishment, and rule, rather than literal destruction