480531170

1534
L1
芯
7
SHIN
core, padding, wick,
pencil lead
strokes
SHINJIpadding
TŌSHINlamp wick
SHINdashicentering
A very late, post-Shuowen graph. Consists of
53 ‘vegetation, plant’, with 164 ‘heart’ as semantic
and phonetic, giving ‘core/pith of plant
or vegetation’. Originally referred in particular
to a type of rush, the oily pith of which can
be used as a lamp wick, leading to extended
senses such as ‘wick’ and also to denote the
central part of items such as in ‘padding (of
quilt)’, ‘(pencil) lead’. GY2008:384; OT1968:845.
Mnemonic: THE CORE OF A PLANT IS ITS HEART
1535
L2
辛
SHIN, karai, tsurai
sharp, bitter
7 strokes
SHINKUhardship
karaMIsharp taste
karōjitebarely
OBI ; seal . Originally, pictograph of
a large needle with sideways projections
partway down, presumably to make it easier
to push the needle into the target surface. The
significance of the top horizontal stroke in OBI
and seal (changed to near-vertical or vertical
in block script) is not clear. This graph is widely
considered to represent a needle for tattooing
the foreheads of slaves and criminals as a mark
of ownership. Tattooing was also one of the
ancient Five Punishments, the others being
cutting off the nose, cutting off a foot, castration,
and capital punishment (ancient Chinese
culture exhibits a fondness for numerical
categories). The original meaning ‘tattooing
needle’ (for slaves and criminals) gave rise to
various extended senses such as ‘crime’, ‘painful’,
‘bitter, pungent’. The additional meaning
‘eighth of the ten Heavenly Stems’ (used in the
traditional Chinese year-counting system) is
a loan use. MS1995:v2:1274-5; KJ1970:942-3;
OT1968:989; AS2007:538. We suggest taking
the graph as 77 ‘stand’ and 35 ‘ten’.
Mnemonic: STAND ON TEN SHARP NEEDLES
– A BITTER EXPERIENCE!
1536
侵
SHIN, okasu
element. The seal form no longer has , but
invade, violate
has 41 ‘person’ added; the second element
L1
9 strokes
is taken by several commentators as semantic
and phonetic to mean ‘sweep away defilement’,
SHINNYŪinvasion
giving overall meaning ‘sweep away
SHINGAIviolation
defilement and cleanse’, and ‘invade’ as a loan
SHINRYAKUaggression
use (Mizukami, Katō). Ogawa prefers to regard
‘invade’ as an extended sense from his projected
original meaning ‘sweep and advance’.
Note: was originally (OBI) a pictograph of
a broom stood bristle-end up, resting against
some type of support or frame. GY2008:884-
5; MS1995:v1:76-8,436-7; KJ1970:251-2;
OT1968:64-5. We suggest taking as hand,
as a cover, and 2003 as another hand.
OBI (