480531170

904
L1
縮
SHUKU,
chijimu/meru
shrink, reduce
17 strokes
SHUKUSHŌreduction
TANSHUKUcontraction
chijimidomeshrinkproof
Seal ; late graph (Shuowen). Has 29
‘thread’, and 327 (‘lodge’) as phonetic with
associated sense taken as either i] ‘untangle’,
giving ‘untangle thread’ (Tōdō, Yamada), or ii]
‘shrink’, giving ‘thread/cloth shrinks’ (Ogawa). In
analysis i], ‘shrink’ is a loan usage. TA1965:211;
YK1976:258-9; OT1968:789.
Mnemonic: REDUCED TO THREAD-BARE
LODGINGS
905
L3
熟
JUKU
ripe, mature, cooked
15 strokes
SEIJUKUmaturity
HANJUKUhalf-boiled
JUKUREN mastery
OBI () ; seal . , a graph with a convoluted
etymology, is a later version of (an
NJK graph now meaning ‘who, which, where?’)
to which 8 ‘fire’ was added as a determinative
for clarity after itself came to be borrowed
as a convenient way of writing another
word, a homophone/near-homophone in
early Chinese meaning ‘who?’. For , the OBI
form has a figure working with hands, taken
by Mizukami as 丮 (CO, OBI form of 丮 shows
person kneeling with arms held out in front,
taken to mean ‘person working in kneeling
posture’), with CO 亯 , which looks (OBI) like
a large lidded cooking pot of some kind,
meaning 亯 ‘boil, cook’ (taken by Mizukami
and Katō as originally pictograph of fortified
structure/town, but Katō notes actual usage is
in the sense of ‘boil, cook’), giving ‘make soft
by cooking’. Bronze forms have these same
elements, with 37 ‘woman’. The seal form
involves further change: the ‘person’ element
is clearly ‘person working while kneeling’ ( 丮 ),
combining with 亯 over 426 (‘[well-cooked]
sheep [as offering]’). The shape just begins
to be seen at clerical script stage (with 丮
modified to , 亯 over changed to , and
‘fire’ determinative added). Note: 亯 is felt by
several scholars (Katō, Qiu) to be old form of
1218 ‘receive’; note also there is an NJK
graph meaning to boil or cook. SK1974:470;
YK1976:259; MS1995:v1:354-5,12-14,v2:1044-5;
KJ1970:524-5,281; QX2000:129. Take elements
as lid ‘mouth’ 22, ‘child’ 27, ‘fire’ 8,
and ‘round’ 101.
Mnemonic: MATURE CHILD PUTS ROUND LID
OVER MOUTH OF FIREPIT
906
L3
純
JUN
pure
10 strokes
JUNSUIpurity
JUNMŌpure wool
JUN’EKI net profit
Bronze ; seal . Has 29 ‘thread’, and
1806 (originally vegetation shoots thrusting
up from the ground, now means army camp)
as phonetic with associated sense taken as i]
‘excellent’, giving ‘beautiful impurity-free raw
silk’ (Yamada, Katō), or ii] ‘thick; impurity-free’,
giving ‘(silk) cloth with tufted edges hanging
down heavily’ (the tufts were white, and hence
the extended sense ‘color without impurities’);
interpretations i] and ii] are both given
by Mizukami also. YK1976:262; KJ1970:528;
MS1995:v2:1006-7,v1:414-5. Suggest taking
as thin variant of ‘hair’ 230.
Mnemonic: PURE THREADS SEEM LIKE THIN
HAIR
280 The 181 Sixth Grade Characters