A question about 貴様

[Tenkai]

So, 貴様 is read as kisama as far as I know. 貴 is read as 'ki' in onyomi and that's fine too. My question is about 様 kanji. 様 is supposed to be read with onyomi since it's in a compound, but it's read in kunyomi instead, which is 'sama'. What is the reason for this? Any explanations?

 

[Glenn]

Those are general guidelines for reading characters, not set-in-stone rules. There are many examples of this, and they even have names:

じゅうばこよみ【重箱読み】の意味 - 国語辞書 - goo辞書 (first character 音, second character 訓)
ゆとうよみ【湯桶読み】の意味 - 国語辞書 - goo辞書 (first character 訓, second character 音)

 

[Toritoribe]

Wiki also has an article about it.

Kanji - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[Tenkai]

Thanks for your answers!