Where does “鬼畜” come from?

鬼畜 (Japanese) comes from Japanese 餓鬼, from Middle Chinese 餓鬼.

鬼畜 (Japanese): preta and beast; demon and beast; a person who...

Definitions

  1. preta and beast; demon and beast; a person who...

Ancestry of “鬼畜”, step by step

鬼畜 traces back through two separate lines of ancestry.

via Japanese 餓鬼

StepLanguageWordMeaning
1Japanese餓鬼short for 餓鬼道: the hungry ghost realm, one of the six realms of reincarnation in Buddhist cosmology
2Middle Chinese餓鬼

via Japanese 畜生

StepLanguageWordMeaning
1Japanese畜生a beast: a generic term for animals, birds, fish...
2Middle Chineseちくしょう
Every word from Middle Chinese 餓鬼Every word from Japanese 餓鬼