480531170

614
牧
BOKU, maki
OBI ; seal . Has 108 ‘cow’, and ()
pasture
112 as semantic and phonetic, meaning ‘beat
L1
8 strokes
with stick’, to give ‘herd cattle with a stick’, and
by extension ‘graze animals’ and also the land
where they graze, i.e. ‘pasture’. KJ1970:864;
YK1976:460; OT1968:636.
BOKUJŌpasture
HŌBOKUgrazing
makibatorimeadowlark
615
末
MATSU, BATSU, sue
end, tip
L3
5 strokes
SHŪMATSUweekend
suekko*youngest child
SHIMATSUmanaging
Mnemonic: HAND WITH STICK MAKES COW
GO INTO PASTURE
to signify small branches at the top of a tree and
equivalent originally to ), but while Mizukami
and Ma do not recognize any OBI forms, Katō
and Yamada list what they take to be OBI forms
for, and consider that originally, at least, there
was no difference in shape between and
. The upper horizontal stroke of is taken
to focus attention on the top part of the tree,
signifying ‘tip, end’ in a physical sense and by
extension the abstract sense also, i.e. ‘end; last,
final’. MS1995:v1:644-5; KJ1970:868; YK1976:462-
3; QX2000:183; AS2007:389; TA1965:667-70.
Mnemonic: TIP OF TREE HAS BIG END
Seal . Scholarly opinion is divided over whether
OBI forms for this graph exist, and whether
there were originally separate graphs for
and the similarly-shaped 617 (qv, originally,
‘tree with luxuriant growth’). There is general
agreement that the graph shows branches
growing out from a tree (though Tōdō takes it
616
満
MAN, michiru/tasu Seal ; traditional ; late graph (Shuowen).
full, fill
Has 42 ‘water’ and / (originally meant
L3
12 strokes
‘join two halves of a gourd’) as semantic and
phonetic meaning ‘fill right up’, to give ‘fill
MANGETSUfull moon
container till water overflows’, then by extension
MANZOKUsatisfaction
‘full’. KJ1970:202; OT1968:597; YK1976:463. We
FUMANdissatisfaction
suggest as 53 ‘grass’ and 434 ‘both’ (qv,
also involving a gourd).
Mnemonic: BOTH GRASS AND WATER CAN BE FILLING
617
未
MI, mada
interprets the graph as ‘branches still growing/
immature, not yet immature’, while Tōdō includes in a wordfamily
‘small, not clearly visible’ and explains
L3
5 strokes
as ‘small upper branches not clearly visible;
MIRAIfuture
these alternative views would result in ‘not
MICHIunknown
yet’ being an extended sense. While not clear
madamadastill not
which of the above views is the one to follow,
OBI seal
;
. OBI forms typically have several
it was a common practice in the early script
to borrow graphs for their sound value to
represent grammatical function words, as in
the case of ‘winnowing basket’ borrowed for
another word indicating probability/futurity.
MS1995:v1:644-5; KJ1970:949; YK1976:464;
AS2007:512; TA1965:732-6. We suggest taking
the graph literally.
extra upper strokes compared with 73 ‘tree’,
representing luxuriant growth, though some
occurrences still appear identical in shape to
. However, they are consistently written with
additional upper strokes from bronze onwards.
Appears to have been borrowed at a very early
stage (OBI) for its sound value, to represent an
abstract grammatical function word meaning
‘not yet’. Note, though, that there are several
alternative analyses: one given in Mizukami
Mnemonic: GROWTH OF IMMATURE TREE
WITH SMALL TIP NOT YET FINISHED
The 200 Fourth Grade Characters 201