480531170

1387
索
SAKU
rope, search
L1
10 strokes
SAKUINindex
SHISAKUspeculation
TESSAKUcable
Bronze ; seal . OBI occurrences have
2003 ‘hand’, or two hands, with another element
representing plant fibers/threads, giving
‘twist fibers and make rope’; 30 ‘roof, cover’
added at bronze stage suggests the work was
done inside a hut or other such building (Gu).
was borrowed for its sound value in early
Chinese to write another homophonous word
meaning ‘search, enquire into’. KJ1970:438-9;
MS1995:v2:1006-7; AS2007:486,482. Suggest
upper part as roof with cross (i.e. church), and
use ‘threads’ 29.
Mnemonic: SEARCH FOR ROPE AND FIND
THREAD UNDER CHURCH ROOF
1388
SAKU, su, suppai
vinegar, sour
L1
12 strokes
SAKUSANacetic acid
su no monopickles
suzukepickling
Bronze ; seal . Has 318 ‘wine’ (originally
pictograph of wine jar’), and (‘make’;
see Note below) as phonetic with associated
sense taken as i] ‘purse the lips’, giving ‘sour
wine’ (Ogawa), or ii] ‘accumulate’, giving ‘wine of
increased acidity due to accumulation of time’,
thus ‘sour wine’ (Mizukami). In either interpretation,
‘vinegar’ is an extended sense. Note: setting
aside minor differences in interpretation,
has the original core meaning of cutting into
wood or other material with an instrument such
as an ax, giving ‘make’ as an extended sense
(see also 141). OT1968:1027; MS1995:v2:1348-
9,v1:18-20.
Mnemonic: VINEGAR IS MADE FROM SOUR
WINE
1389
L1
搾
SAKU, shiboru
wring, press
13 strokes
SAKUSHUexploitation
ASSAKUpressure
shiboritoruextract
A graph devised in Japan (kokuji; see Introduction),
not in China itself. Has 34 ‘hand’, and
NJK ‘narrow; press/coerce’ as semantic and
phonetic, giving ‘apply pressure, press’. Since
is a kokuji and by definition was not brought
over from China, the graph as a whole has no
on reading proper to reflect original Chinese
pronunciation, but it has assumed the on reading
of . OT1968:426; GY2008:1147. We suggest
taking the elements as ‘hand’ 34, ‘hole’
860, and ‘make’ (see 141 and 1388).
Mnemonic: MAKE A HOLE BY PRESSING WITH
HAND
1390
錯
SAKU
mix up, confuse
L1
16 strokes
SAKUGOmistake
SAKKAKUillusion
TŌSAKUperversion
Seal ; late graph (Shuowen). Has 16
‘metal’, and 346 ‘formerly, days of old’ as
phonetic with associated sense ‘put on top, pile
up’, thus ‘plate, coat with metal’. TA1965:364-7;
OT1968:1045; KJ1985:633.
Mnemonic: IN OLDEN TIMES METALS WERE
OFTEN MIXED UP
The Remaining 1130 Characters 411