480531170

371
定
TEI, JŌ, sadameru
fix, establish
L3
8 strokes
TEIKI fixed term
FUTEI indefinite
KETTEI decision
Bronze ; seal . Has 30 ‘roof, building’,
and 43 (‘correct’) as phonetic, generally
taken as having associated sense ‘prepare a
house’, and by extension the more generalized
meanings ‘arrange’, ‘decide’. Mizukami also lists
second interpretation, i.e. ‘stay on in a house’.
Ma interprets as ‘person entering a house’ by
taking lower element in his proposed OBI forms
as 54 ‘foot/leg’ (q.v.). In the latter cases,
‘decide’ is presumably considered a loan usage.
KJ1970:584; YK1976:373; MS1995v1:368-9;
MR2007:369.
Mnemonic: FIX ROOF CORRECTLY
372
L3
庭
TEI, niwa
garden, courtyard
9 strokes
KATEI household
TEIEN garden
niwaSHI master gardener
Seal . Has 127 ‘house, building’, and
1742 (‘imperial court’), here as phonetic with
associated sense ‘extend/spread in a straight
line/evenly’ (Mizukami, Tōdō). Originally, the
building was typically a palace, and the graph
referred to a level open space in a courtyard
where people often gathered for formal occasions.
Used with a similar meaning historically
in Japan, but then also came to denote ‘garden’.
MS1995:454-5; TA1965:455-59; OT1968:329.
Mnemonic: PALACE COURTYARD HAS FINE
COVERED GARDEN
373
L1
笛
TEKI, fue
flute, whistle
11 strokes
KITEKI steam whistle
TEKISHU flutist
kuchibue whistle
374
鉄
TETSU, kurogane
iron, steel
L3
13 strokes
TEPPAN iron/steel plate
CHIKATETSU subway
TEKKYŌ iron bridge
Seal ; traditional . Generally taken as 16
‘metal’, with (CO ‘big’) (the minor change from
56 [‘big’] in top of seal form to 35 [‘ten’] in
block script is not significant) as phonetic with
associated sense range ‘black soil, black, reddishblack’
(Mizukami, Yamada, Ogawa), though
Seal ; a late graph (Shuowen). Has 58
‘bamboo’, and 421 (‘reason’) as phonetic
with associated sense ‘extract’ (Tōdō, Ogawa)
or ‘clear’ (Katō); Tōdō takes it as extracting the
material from inside the bamboo joints to make
it hollow, while Katō takes as meaning a flute
which produces clear sound. TA1965:185-90;
OT1968:749; KJ1970:720.
Mnemonic: THERE’S A REASON WHY BAM-
BOO IS USED AS A FLUTE
Katō regards the right-hand element as having
semantic and phonetic role, meaning ‘big’. In
favour of interpretation of right-hand element
as ‘black, reddish black’ here is the existence of
a related word in Chinese of the same or similar
pronunciation represented by the graph
meaning ‘reddish-black horse’. The black or reddish-black
metal is usually taken as ‘iron’, which
takes on a reddish-black colour when rusted.
MS1995:v2:1378-9; YK1976:377; OT1968:1040;
KJ1970:723; ZY2009:v4:1560. We suggest taking
the modern right-side as 529 ‘lose’.
Mnemonic: LOST METAL PROVES TO BE IRON
136 The 200 Third Grade Characters