480531170

found in the clerical script. Mizukami lists one
OBI form which he treats as KJ1970:848;
YK1976:445; OT1968:114; MS1995:v1:108-9,
130-31; AS2007:167; SK1984:94. This is a difficult
graph in terms of mnemonics, but we
608
L3
辺
HEN, atari, be
vicinity, boundary
5 strokes
HENKYŌfrontier
KINPENvicinity
kawaberiverside
Bronze ; seal ; traditional . Has / 85
‘walk, go’ (replaces bronze stage [‘road/go’
131, same meaning]), and (original meaning:
‘cannot see’ [Yamada], or ‘both sides of the nose,
nostrils’ [Katō; Ogawa also takes as ‘sides’]) as
phonetic with associated sense typically taken
suggest taking the left part as an 22 ‘opening’
with as ‘special’ variant of 78 ‘strength’.
Mnemonic: USING KNIFE TO SPLIT OPENING
NEEDS SPECIAL STRENGTH
as ‘boundary’. Yamada posits a more distant
meaning, i.e. ‘(spatial) ends of the earth’, which
links to the original meaning he attributes to .
Overall original meaning of is ‘walk along
boundary’, later modified to indicate just the
noun ‘boundary’ and extended to ‘vicinity,
area’ (including ‘vicinity’ in the sense of approximation).
MS1995:v2:1312-3; YK1976:446;
KJ1970:851-2; OT1968:992. We suggest taking
the modern graph as movement 85 and
198 ‘knife/cut’.
Mnemonic: MOVEMENT CUTS THROUGH
BOUNDARY
609
変
HEN, kaeru/waru
change, strange
L3
9 strokes
HENSEImetamorphosis
TAIHENvery
kawarimonoeccentric
Seal ; traditional Has () 112 ‘strike’,
and (CO, original meaning: ‘thread becomes
tangled’) as phonetic with associated sense
‘knock over and turn into something different’.
Subsequently the sense ‘strike/knock over’
was omitted, to give the generalized meaning
‘change’. ‘Strange’ may be seen as an extended
sense. Mizukami lists a few bronze forms which
he takes as equivalents of . In the modern
abbreviated shape , bottom element is
in a variant 3-stroke shape (which is not
‘descending foot’: det. 34). KJ1970:898;
YK1976:446-7; MS1995:v2:1214-5; OT1968:444.
Suggest taking upper part as variant of 48
‘red’ (i.e. sort of red) and, though incorrect
etymologically, as cross-legs.
Mnemonic: CHANGE TO A STRANGE SORT OF
RED WHILE CROSS-LEGGED
610
L4
便
BEN, BIN, tayori
convenience,
mail, service
9 strokes
BENRIconvenient
BENJO (vulgar)toilet
YŪBINpost, mail
Seal ; late graph (Shuowen). Has 41 ‘person’,
and 1323 (‘change’) as phonetic with
associated sense ‘servant; use a servant’, and
by extension ‘convenient, comfortable; service,
mail’. The meaning ‘bodily waste’ appears to
be a further euphemistic extension (cf. British
English ‘public convenience’ in the sense ‘public
toilet or restroom’). OT1968:66; YK1976:448-9.
Mnemonic: CHANGE OF MAILMAN LEADS TO
CONVENIENT SERVICE
The 200 Fourth Grade Characters 199