480531170

621
L3
約
9
YAKU
promise, approx.,
summarise
strokes
YAKUSOKUpromise
SETSUYAKUeconomize
YAKUJŪNIN10 people
Seal . This graph has 29 ‘thread, cord’, and
. The latter was formerly in the Jōyō kanji
List, but was one of the five characters to be
withdrawn from it in the changes in 2010. It
originally depicted wine or soup being ladled
into a container such as a half-gourd, but here
it acts as a phonetic with associated meaning
‘bind, fasten’, to give ‘fasten tightly with cord
(in some cases leaving noticeable marks)’.
By extension, it acquired meanings such as
‘reduce, contract, bring together’, and then
abstract meanings such as ‘make agreement’
and ‘summarise’. (One notes the similar use of
the figurative concept/term ‘binding’ in English
with regard to agreements and promises.) The
latter sense of ‘summarise’ involves removal of
non-essential points or items, thereby perhaps
generating the meaning ‘approximately’. Early
(post-OBI) senses listed by Schuessler include
‘abbreviate, condense, essential’. OT1968:768;
MS1995:v2:1004,v1:146-7; KJ1970:874;
YK1976:475.
Mnemonic: BINDING PROMISE TO PUT
THREADS ON THE LADLE
622
勇
YŪ, isamu/mashii
brave, spirited
L3
9 strokes
YŪSHAhero
YŪKIcourage
isamiashirashness
Bronze ; seal . The bronze form has
’halberd’ (see for example 545) over 235
(originally, pen for animals; later ‘use’); Mizukami
takes it as ‘strength to use a halberd’, while Katō
says the meaning is unclear. In the seal forms,
still occurs, but Shuowen main heading has
78 ‘strength’, with (see 193: now means
‘go through’ but original meaning disputed,
though Mizukami takes it as ‘shape of round
flower-bud’) as phonetic with associated
sense generally agreed to be ‘gush out’, to give
‘strength gushes out’, and hence ‘courage’. By
about the 6 th century AD, the time the block
script was widely established in use in place
of the clerical script (see Introduction), the
lower part of the phonetic element was slightly
abbreviated in shape, resulting in the form
in use today (). MS1995:v1:138-40, v2:868-
9; KJ1970:885-6; YK1976:478; OT1968:127;
QX2000:142-7; FC1977:112. We suggest taking
the modern form as ‘bent figure’ with 57
‘man’.
Mnemonic: BENT OLD MAN IS STILL BRAVE
AND SPIRITED
623
要
YŌ, iru, kaname
need, vital, pivot
L3
9 strokes
FUHITSUYŌunnecessary
YŌTENgist
JŪYŌimportance
Bronze ; seal . Some bronze forms (as here)
have 37 ‘woman’ as lower element; analyses
of upper part differ. Seal form is taken as
backbone with hipbones on either side (Katō,
Yamada), or as two hands enclosing waist
(Ogawa), or as hipbones and pelvis (Shirakawa),
or yet again as (‘stopper, plug’) (not 169
‘west’), as abbreviated form of 598 (‘sign’) as
phonetic with associated sense ‘light’ or ‘tighten’
(Mizukami). Lower part of seal form has not
but a shape to represent two legs. Despite
varied analysis, consensus is that the graph’s
meaning is ‘waist’ (later written 2054); by
extension, ‘tie a waistband’ or ‘central part’,
hence ‘pivotal, vital’. KJ1970:87; YK1976:483;
OT1968:912; SS1984:847; MS1995:v2:1174-5. To
simplify, we suggest as west(ern), and lower
part as woman.
Mnemonic: A WESTERN HAS VITAL NEED FOR
WOMAN IN PIVOTAL ROLE
The 200 Fourth Grade Characters 203