is there ever a place this is used.
From what I can tell 狗 is only really used to mean dog in 3 words (1 of which also is spelt using 犬, 1 of which is an archaism and 1 of which is a 4 character idiom taken from chinese）Most of the time when you use 狗 it is taking on the other meanings
for instance
走狗の悪魔 (Pawn of the devil)
走狗のんだよ you are nothing but “their” pawn.
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So my question, does anyone actually use 走狗.
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Thanks.
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3 comments
It’s a super common word in Chinese though.
狡兎死して走狗烹らる
There is a saying from Chinese folklore. It means that a hunting dog is useless and will be killed when there are no more rabbits to hunt.
It is also used in the word tengu（天狗👺), inugami (狗神).
we barely use in spoken Japanese; 1. 走狗 is an insulting word. We don‘t usually insult others ofcourse…2. 走狗 pronunces Souku. When we hear Souku, many words occur to our minds like 総区,走駆,創工 etc but none of them show us clear meaning. In this case, people like to use more easy expression like 「お前はあいつ等の犬だ」(you are a pawn of them) rather than 「お前はあいつ等の走狗だ」.