熊

熊 (Kangxi radical 86, 火+10, 14 strokes, cangjie input 戈心火 (IPF), four-corner 2133₁, composition ⿱能灬)

• Kangxi Dictionary: page 679, character 10
• Dai Kanwa Jiten: character 19294
• Dae Jaweon: page 1090, character 32
• Hanyu Da Zidian (first edition): volume 3, page 2227, character 5
• Unihan data for U+718A

Historical forms of the character 熊
Warring States	Shuowen Jiezi (compiled in Han)	Liushutong (compiled in Ming)
Chu slip and silk script	Small seal script	Transcribed ancient scripts
Oracle bone script j22798 Transcribed ancient scripts L30031
References: Mostly from Richard Sears' Chinese Etymology site (authorisation), which in turn draws data from various collections of ancient forms of Chinese characters, including: Shuowen Jiezi (small seal), Jinwen Bian (bronze inscriptions), Liushutong (Liushutong characters) and Yinxu Jiaguwen Bian (oracle bone script).

According to Shuowen, phono-semantic compound (形聲／形声, OC *ɢʷlɯm) : semantic 能 (“bear”) + abbreviated phonetic 炎 (OC *ɦlam).

This character originally represented an onomatopoetic word (熊熊 (xióngxióng, “(of flame) raging”)). Later its semantic component 能 (OC *nɯː, *nɯːs, *nɯːŋ, *nɯːŋʔ), the character for the Old Chinese word "bear", was borrowed for another word. This character thus began to represent the word "bear" instead.

From Proto-Sino-Tibetan *d-wam. Cognate with Tibetan དོམ (dom, “bear”), Burmese ဝံ (wam) (in ဝက်ဝံ (wak-wam, “bear”)).

熊

1. bear (mammal) (Classifier: 頭／头 m; 隻／只 m c mn)
2. (colloquial) to scold (Can we add an example for this sense?)
3. (colloquial) timid; cowardly
4. (Northeastern Mandarin) to bully; to extort
5. (gay slang) bear (large, hairy man, especially a homosexual one)
6. (archaic, Muping and Xining Mandarin, Xinzhou Jin) black bear

   • 吉夢維何？
     維熊維羆、
     維虺維蛇。 [Pre-Classical Chinese, trad.]
     吉梦维何？
     维熊维罴、
     维虺维蛇。 [Pre-Classical Chinese, simp.]

     From: The Classic of Poetry, c. 11^th – 7^th centuries BCE, translated based on James Legge's version

     Jí mèng wéi hé?
     Wéi xióng wéi pí,
     Wéi huǐ wéi shé. [Pinyin]

     What dreams are lucky?
     They have been about black bears and brown bears;
     They have been about asps and adders.

7. a surname: Xiong (mainland China); Hsiung (Taiwan); Hung (Hong Kong)

   熊十力  ―  Xióng Shílì  ―  Xiong Shili (20th-century Chinese philosopher)

• (bear):

• (to scold):

• (timid):

• (black bear):

(common “Jōyō” kanji)

1. bear

• Go-on: う (u)
• Kan-on: ゆう (yū)
• Kun: くま (kuma, 熊, Jōyō)
• Nanori: かげ (kage)

熊 (kuma): a brown bear.

From Old Japanese. First cited in the Kojiki of 712.[1]

Further derivation is uncertain. Possibilities include:

• Might be cognate with Japanese 隈 (kuma, “inside corner; inner bend; hollow or hole in something”), perhaps from the way that bears often live in dens.[2]
• Might also or separately be cognate with Middle Korean 곰〯 (kwǒm, “bear”), whose archaic form */koma/ is preserved as the first element of the toponym 고마〮ᄂᆞᄅᆞ (Kwòmánòlò, literally “Bear-ford”). Thus, a cognate of Korean 곰 (gom, “bear”) and Baekje 金馬 (*kəma/*kuma, “bear”).
• Might be an areal Wanderwort, borrowed from Old Chinese 熊 (OC *ɢʷlɯm) and ultimately deriving from Proto-Sino-Tibetan *d-wam. See also the etymology notes in the *d-wam entry.

• (Tokyo) くま​ [kùmáꜜ] (Odaka – [2])[3][4][5]
• (Tokyo) く​ま [kúꜜmà] (Atamadaka – [1])[3][4][5]
• IPA^(key): [kɯ̟ᵝma̠]

熊(くま) or 熊(クマ) • (kuma) 

1. [from 712] a bear (large mammal of family Ursidae)
2. [from 1701] (slang) hairiness in general; (more specifically) a bear, an otter (a hairy man, especially one who is gay)
3. [???] (theater) standing room only audience members in the pit (from the way the standing section would often have a metal railing or fence separating it, resembling a bear cage)

As with many terms that name organisms, this term is often spelled in katakana, especially in biological contexts (where katakana is customary), as クマ.

熊(くま) or 熊(クマ) • (kuma) 

1. [from 712] prefixed to other nouns for animals or plants to indicate large size or great strength, relative to other varieties

From Middle Chinese 熊 (MC hjuwng).

• (SK Standard/Seoul) IPA^(key): [uŋ]
• Phonetic hangul: [웅]

Wikisource 熊 (eumhun 곰 웅 (gom ung))

1. Hanja form^? of 웅 (“bear”).

• 국제퇴계학회 대구경북지부 (國際退溪學會 大邱慶北支部) (2007). Digital Hanja Dictionary, 전자사전／電子字典.

(grade 4 “Kyōiku” kanji)

1. bear

• Kun: くま (kuma, 熊, Jōyō)

Cognate with Japanese 熊 (kuma, “bear”) and Korean 곰 (gom).

• IPA^(key): [kuma]

熊(くま) (kuma) 

1. bear

• “くま【熊】” in JLect - Japonic Languages and Dialects Database Dictionary, 2019.

熊: Hán Nôm readings: hùng

1. bear