480531170

of Jiyun, a Chinese rhyme dictionary published
in 1037, the entry for has noted as an
alternative form. The lower right-hand element
(four strokes) in the modern Japanese form
is a device which was used occasionally for
convenience in less formal pre-modern texts to
represent reduplication of an element; another
example in the modern script is 1596 (‘take,
act as proxy’), which is a simplified version of
traditional . ‘Hesitate’ is an extended sense of
; ‘astringent’ is a loan usage. DJ2009:v1:136;
OT1968:586; ZY2009:v2:649; GY2008:1138;
KJ1970:517-8; SS1984:416; TA1965:809. We
suggest taking the bottom right element as four
droplets, and as ‘liquid’.
Mnemonic: ASTRINGENT DROPLETS MAKES
ONE HESITATE AND STOP
1464
L1
銃
JŪ
gun
14 strokes
SHŌJŪsmall arms
JŪKENbayonet
JŪKA gunfire
A late, post-Shuowen graph. Has 16 ‘metal’,
and 1461 ‘fill, full’, which is taken as phonetic
with associated sense as i] ‘hole, cavity’,
giving ‘hole made in ax handle’ (Shirakawa), or
ii] ‘enclose’, giving ‘hole in ax head to fit handle
through’ (Ogawa, Gu). Both parts of the ax
would have had holes to enable them to be
secured together as one. From sometime in
the Ming dynasty (1368-1644), was adopted
to denote early firearms. The adaptation
was perhaps suggested through similarity in
shape between an ax handle and the hollow
barrel of a firearm. SS1984:416; OT1968:1042;
GY2008:1262.
Mnemonic: GUN IS FILLED WITH METAL
1465
L1
獣
JŪ, ke(da)mono
beast
16 strokes
JŪIveterinarian
JŪTEKIbestial
CHŌJŪ wildlife
OBI ; seal ; traditional . The OBI form
has 19 ‘dog’, and (originally a twopronged
thrusting weapon for stabbing;
569 ‘simple’), giving ‘hunt using weaponry
and dogs’. Several commentators (Mizukami,
Shirakawa) explain this graph as originally
consisting of plus 嘼 , which is treated by
Kangxi zidian as an old form of 1702 ‘do-
1466
L1
叔
8
oji*uncle
oba*aunt
ōoji* great-uncle
SHUKU
uncle (younger
brother of parent)
strokes
mestic animals’. However, the OBI and bronze
forms of clearly have the early equivalents
of and not 嘼 , a view which is shared by
Gu and Ogawa. At the seal stage, we do find
replaced by 嘼 , though it may be that this
change reflects no more than a regularization
based on minor variations in shape of
in bronze. ZY2009:v1:145; MS1995:v2:846-
7,v1:240-41; SS1984:416; GY2008:1311;
OT1968:647. Suggest taking left side of the
graph as a variant of ‘simple’ , plus 22
‘(open) mouth’.
Mnemonic: OPEN-MOUTHED DOG IS A
SIMPLE BEAST
Bronze ; seal . Has 尗 , which is typically
taken as originally depicting an edible plant
such as taro in the ground (together with that
part of the plant growing above ground), and
2003 ‘hand’, giving the original meaning
‘gather taro’, then generalized to ‘harvest’
(verb). Note, though, that Shirakawa claims the
bronze form of 尗 instead depicts the head of
a halberd. was later borrowed to represent
a near-homophone meaning ‘young’, and then
434 The Remaining 1130 Characters