480531170

451
L3
塩
EN, shio
salt
13 strokes
SHOKUENtable salt
shiomizusaltwater
SEIENSHOsaltworks
Seal ; traditional . Traditional form has
, based on pictograph of salt or salty soil
contained in a basket-like container, and
1159 (‘watch’) as phonetic with associated
sense ‘bitter’ (Katō, Yamada); Schuessler,
though, considers the proposed associated
sense ‘bitter’ as unlikely here, on linguistic
grounds. Ogawa, by contrast, takes the sense
of the phonetic as ‘soak in water’, namely
seawater. This is noted tentatively as a possibility
by Mizukami also, who gives a bronze
equivalent that includes 42 ‘water’ as an
additional component, though the ‘water’
452
億
OKU
100,000,000; lots
L3
15 strokes
NIOKU 200 million
JŪOKU billion
OKUCHŌ‘the masses’
Seal ; late graph (Shuowen). Has 41 ‘person’
and 246 (‘thought’) as semantic and
phonetic with associated meaning ‘heart is
full, content’ (Ogawa), giving overall meaning
453
加
KA, kuwaeru/waru
add, join
L3
5 strokes
ZŌKAincrease
SANKAparticipation
kuwaeZANadding
Bronze ; seal . Has 22 ‘mouth/speech’
and 78 ‘strength’. Typically considered to
have the word-family association ‘numerous’.
Yamada gives basic overall meaning as ‘speak
forcefully at length’. Ogawa, however, treats
as phonetic with associated sense ‘pile up,
component here could alternatively reflect
part of a process for obtaining salt (‘rock salt’)
from salty soil. Salt was an important trading
commodity in ancient China, as in other
ancient civilisations, due in part to its preserving
qualities. The modern (block script) form
has 64 ‘earth, ground’, reflecting that one
salt production method was from the ground.
The right-hand side is a simplified modification
in shape to the upper right and lower
elements of the traditional form (examples
of the simplified right-hand side can be
found in Han time clerical script). KJ1970:105;
YK1976:71; OT1968:1158; MS1995:v2:1502-3;
AS2007:554; WM1974:121. Suggest taking four
components: 64 ‘ground’, 41 ‘person’,
22 ‘mouth’, and 300 ‘dish ‘.
Mnemonic: PERSON SPITS SALTY DISH FROM
MOUTH TO GROUND
‘satisfied person’. The meaning ‘one hundred
million/ extremely large number’ (originally ‘one
hundred thousand’) is loan usage. Based on the
seal form Yamada feels that the standard script
form of should properly be (‘satisfied’),
but Kangxi zidian quotes the 11th century Jiyun
dictionary, which says that this latter graph and
are the same. OT1968:81; KJ1970:300-01;
YK1976:74-5; ZY2009:v1:48.
Mnemonic: PERSON WITH A HUNDRED
MILLION THOUGHTS
accumulate’, to give ‘accumulate words and
overcome another’, but a phonetic role for
here is debatable on linguistic grounds.
Shirakawa sees as originally showing a plow
(a minority view), and the whole graph as
originally referring to a ritual to increase productivity.
Tōdō has different view on , and
includes instead in word-family ‘add on top’
together with 259 ‘load, burden’. YK1976:78;
OT1968:124; SS1984:70-71; MS1995:v1:138-9.
TA1965:583-6.
Mnemonic: SPEECH HAS ADDED STRENGTH
The 200 Fourth Grade Characters 157