Shirakawa, however, interprets the upper element more literally as a person with outstretched limbs, to give a meaning such as ‘cleanse someone of their crimes’, which one imagines would be a final cleansing! Popularly believed to show ‘earth’ 土 64 over 灬. This is incorrect, but useful as a mnemonic. BK1957:209-10; OT1968:964; SS1984:505.
Mnemonic: BIG FIRE MAKES EARTH GLOW RED
49
L5
千
SEN, chi
thousand
3 strokes
千円 SEN’EN thousand yen
五千 GOSEN five thousand
千鳥 chidori plover
Etymology unclear. Early forms such as might suggest interpretation as 人 41 ‘person’ with 十 35 ‘ten’, representing ‘ten people [each one hundred years old]’. This was the traditional interpretation (Shuowen), but it is incorrect, as in early times the graph close in shape to the modern 十 stood for ‘seven’ 七 32. Shirakawa takes it as a version of the old graph for 人 ‘person’ modified to represent ‘thousand’ by the addition of a horizontal stroke, with 人 as a phonetic element (a view shared by Katō). BK1957:104; AS2007:424; SS1984:515; KJ1985:84.
Mnemonic: ADD A STROKE ON TOP, AND TEN BECOMES A THOUSAND
50
L5
川
SEN, kawa
river
3 strokes
川口 kawaguchi rivermouth
川柳 SENRYŪ comic verse
江戸川 edogawa Edo River
Based on pictographs of water flowing between two river banks, such as the OBI form later stylized. See also 水 42 ‘water’. SS1984:515; QX2000:175; KJ1970:631.
Mnemonic: RIVER FLOWS BETWEEN TWO BANKS
51
L5
先
SEN, saki
prior, precede, tip
6 strokes
先生 SENSEI teacher
先月 SENGETSU last month
指先 yubisaki fingertip
The OBI form for 先 shows a foot on top of a person, signifying ‘walk ahead, go first’. (This is similar in principle to 見 20 ‘look’, in which the majority of OBI forms show an exaggerated eye on top of a person, thereby focussing on what the eye does, i.e. ‘see’.) This is an interpretation quite widely held (Shirakawa, Karlgren, Ogawa). Katō, however, sees the top element in some of the OBI and bronze forms differently, not as 止 143 (q.v.) but as 之 (NJK; ‘move, go’), a graph indicating movement (either by a person walking or a plant growing). In either case, Katō then takes the top element as phonetic in function with associated sense ‘die’, giving ‘those who have gone before’, and by extension ‘the past’, and ‘advance’. The majority view is perhaps the one to follow. SS1984:515; BK1957:131-3; OT1968:87; KJ1970:627; QX2000:53. As a mnemonic, suggest taking as a simplified 生 44, showing plant(s), with the ‘bending person’ element 儿 (see 41).
Mnemonic: BEND TO GO THROUGH UNDER-GROWTH – YOU PRECEDE ME!
52
L4
早
SŌ, hayai
early, fast
6 strokes
早急 SŌKYŪ immediately
早口 hayakuchi rapid speech
早死に hayajini early death
Etymology uncertain. Early form Possibly adopted in Chinese at an early stage as a phonetic loan in the sense of ‘early’. Yamada takes it as ‘sun bursting out’ (see 日 66 ‘sun’), with 十 35 ‘ten’ seen as a phonetic with an associated sense of ‘open, burst out’. Sunrise came to mean ‘early’, then ‘fast’. QX2000:96,272,392; SS1984:539; OT1968:460.
Mnemonic: SUN SHOWS TEN BUT IT’S STILL EARLY
53
L3
草
SŌ, kusa
grass, plant
9 strokes
雑草 ZASSŌ weed
草書 SŌSHO cursive script
草地 kusaCHI grassland
Seal late graph (Shuowen). 艹 (short form of 艸 ‘grass, plants’), and 早 52 (‘fast, early’) as phonetic to give meaning ‘acorn’ (Qiu, Katō), but borrowed early on for ‘grass, plants’. The borrowed usage soon prevailed. QX2000:266; KJ1970:427; TA1965:216-8.
Mnemonic: GRASS GROWS FAST
54
L5
足
SOKU, ashi, tariru
leg, foot, suffice
7 strokes
不足 FUSOKU insufficiency
足首 ashikubi ankle
足音 ashioto footsteps
OBI Pictograph of kneecap down to foot. At this stage 足 and 正 43 were often written the same. ‘Suffice’ is loan use. SS1984:543; BK1957:313; MS1995:v2:1260-62,v1:702-03.
Mnemonic: ROUND KNEE AND FOOT SUFFICE TO SHOW LEG
55
L5
村
SON, mura
village
7 strokes
村長 SONCHŌ village head
農村 NŌSON farming village
村人 murabito villager(s)
Etymology unclear. Seems a late graph, not in Shuowen dictionary of ca.100AD. Ogawa treats it as variant of CO graph 杶 ‘lacquer tree’ which was used phonetically in the sense of ‘village’ in place of another graph for ’village’, 邨, which may be taken provisionally as阝 (邑) ‘settlement, village’ (see 376), and 屯 1806 ‘accumulate, stay’ as semantic and phonetic. OT1968:490-91; KJ1985:311. Use 寸 920 ‘measure’ and 木 73 ‘tree’ for mnemonic.
Mnemonic: MEASURE TREES TO BUILD A VILLAGE
56
L5
大
DAI, TAI, ōkii, ō-
big
3 strokes
大会
