480531170

1207
L1
嗅
KYŪ, kagu
smell, sniff, scent
13 strokes
KYŪKAKUsense of smell
kagitabako*snuff
kagidasusniff/ferret out
Seal form (post-Shuowen) . This graph was
originally written 399 ‘nose’, with 1452
‘smell, odor’, giving overall meaning ‘smell’
(verb), this being based on dogs being wellknown
for their keen sense of smell. Subsequently
(Six Dynasties period [220-589AD]
onwards), 22 ‘mouth’ was sometimes used as
determinative in place of , giving , which
1208
窮
KYŪ, kiwameru/maru
extreme, suffer
L1
15 strokes
KYŪKYOKUextremity
KYŪKUTSUconstraint
KYŪBŌpoverty
Seal ( ) . Interpretations diverge. Has
860 ‘cave, hole’, and NJK ‘body’; at the clerical
script stage, we find as an alternative form
(also NJK), and this latter appears to have later
gained ascendancy over . One analysis takes
/ as phonetic with associated sense ‘bend
the body over’, giving ‘bend over and enter
1209
巨
KYO
huge, giant
L2
5 strokes
KYOJINgiant
KYODAI namassive
KYOHIhuge expense
OBI ; bronze form A ; bronze form B ;
seal . Interpretations diverge. One view takes
it to originally depict the hole in an ax handle
that is made for the axhead to fit into (Katō);
the bronze form A shown is supportive of this
view, perhaps indicating the point for the hole
on an ax handle. Some of the bronze equivalents
listed by Mizukami and Shirakawa, though
(such as bronze form B), appear to depict
something quite different: many of them show
has come to predominate. In standard modern
Japanese usage, the semantically transparent
component 19 ‘dog’ here has been retained,
but note that in 1452 ‘smell, odor’ when
used as an independent graph, standard usage
still favors the semantically opaque 56 ‘big’
as lower element due to earlier script simplification.
SS1984:177; GY2008:1082; OT1968:192. We
suggest taking the elements as 150, which
is now used to mean ‘self’ but was originally a
nose, with ‘big spotted dog’ 19, plus ‘mouth’
22.
Mnemonic: BIG SPOTTED SNIFFER DOG HAS
MOUTH WITH NOSE TO SMELL
deep into (a cave)’ (Tōdō, Ogawa); by extension,
‘be in difficulties/an extreme situation’. Katō
takes the associated sense of / as ‘extreme’,
to give ‘innermost part of cave dwelling’. Note:
is 339 ‘body’, with NJK ‘backbone,
spine’ (originally pictograph). DJ2009:v2:596;
TA1965:225-6; KJ1970:264; GY2008:1084;
OT1968:742 SK1984:584. We suggest taking
the elements as 860 ‘hole’, and further taking
the elements of into 339 (still with a
meaning of ‘body’) and as ‘bow’ 107.
Mnemonic: BODY BOWED IN HOLE –
EXTREME SUFFERING
a figure holding what is taken alternatively to
be a carpenter’s square, with the center part
(corresponding to the projecting middle part
of ) being a handle. Katō disagrees, since the
only forms he identifies as bronze equivalents
of do not include a person holding the item
in question, and in shape are quite similar to
125 ‘tool/work’, which as an independent graph
might represent an ax, though this is debatable.
The seal form, it will be noticed, still has the
top and bottom lines of the graph projecting
over to the left, but these were later shortened,
resulting in the shape familiar to us today
as . Overall, commentators tend towards
‘carpenter’s square’ which seems more likely as
the original meaning. The modern sense ‘huge’
is noted by Mizukami as a loan usage. Note:
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