熊

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

• 羆

• 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

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 *tV-wəm. 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. (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.

3. (colloquial) to scold (Can we add an example for this sense?)
4. (colloquial) timid; cowardly
5. (Northeastern Mandarin) to bully; to extort
6. (gay slang) bear (large, hairy man, especially a homosexual one)
7. a surname, Xiong (Mainland China), Hsiung (Taiwan), or Hung (Hong Kong)

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

• (bear):

• (to scold):

• (timid):

• (black bear):

• 莆田市荔城区档案馆 [Putian City Licheng District Archives], editor (2022), “熊”, in 莆仙方言文读字汇 [Puxian Dialect Literary Reading Dictionary] (overall work in Mandarin and Puxian Min), page 266.

(Fourth grade kyōiku kanji)

1. bear

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

• 熊害(ゆうがい) (yūgai)
• 熊掌(ゆうしょう) (yūshō)

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 *tV-wəm. See also the etymology notes in the *tV-wəm entry.

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

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 (kuma).

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. [2]

(Fourth grade 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