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1582
L1
婿
SEI, muko
son-in-law
12 strokes
JOSEIson-in-law
hanamukobridegroom
mukoirimove to wife’s family
Seal () ; late graph (Shuowen). Main entry
heading in Shuowen has 521 ‘male’ as
determinative, but it notes graph written with
1583
L1
誓
SEI, chikau
pledge, vow, oath
14 strokes
SEIYAKUpledge
SENSEIoath
chikaigotopledge
Bronze ; seal . Has 118 ‘words; speak’,
and 551 ‘break’ taken in one view (Katō) as
semantic and phonetic. When an agreement
was made in ancient times, a wooden tablet or
similar was broken in two, each party keeping
half. Katō notes there is one example in bronze
of the Chinese word for ‘oath, make an oath’
written just as , and he explains that ‘for ordinary
agreements a wooden tally was broken,
but meant making agreement with words’.
37 ‘woman’ as alternative form, suggesting
was probably original form. (CO ‘assist’)
is phonetic with associated sense ‘intelligent’,
thus – for – ‘intelligent/fine male’, or – for
– ‘’intelligent/fine male for a woman’;
later ‘son-in-law’. DJ2009:v1:32; KJ1970:964;
OT1968:260. Use ‘leg’ 1574, and ‘body’
209.
Mnemonic: SON-IN-LAW HAS LEGS AND
BODY OF A WOMAN!
This is not convincing, for any agreement
between two parties surely uses language. A
more plausible explanation for is that the
early Chinese word for ‘agreement, oath’ was
at first written as just , but later to disambiguate
in writing this word from another – a
near-homophone meaning ‘bend, break’ – at
first (bronze) 22 (‘mouth; speak’) was added,
but later changed to . Mizukami takes
as combining with as phonetic with associated
sense ‘promise, agree’ or ‘clearly state’,
giving ‘make promise in words’. KJ1970:613;
AS2007:608,468; MS1995:v2:1198-9;
OT1968:931.
Mnemonic: BROKEN WORD IS ACTUALLY A
PLEDGE!?
1584
L1
請
SEI, SHIN, kou, ukeru
request, undertake
15 strokes
SEIKYŪrequest
FUSHINconstruction
ukeoiNINcontractor
Bronze ; seal ; traditional form has
right-hand . Has 118 ‘words; speak’,
and (traditional form of 45 “blue/
green”) as phonetic with associated sense
taken either as i] ‘clear’, thus ‘clear words’
(noted in Mizukami), or ii] ‘see’, giving orig
sense ‘have audience (with one’s lord)’, and
by extension ‘ask for’ (Ogawa). ‘Undertake’
appears to be an associated meaning, as in
the English ‘bid, tender’. MS1995:v2:1202-3;
OT1968:934.
Mnemonic: EXPRESS REQUEST IN BLUE
WORDS!
1585
L1
醒
SEI, sameru/masu
sober up, wake up
16 strokes
yoizamesobering up
KAKUSEIawakening
KEISEIwarning, rousing
Seal ; late graph (later version of Shuowen).
Has 318 ‘wine’ (depicting wine jar), and
171 (‘star’) as phonetic with associated sense
‘clear, become clear’, giving ‘sober up, wake up’.
OT1968:1028; AS2007:432; SS1984:501.
Mnemonic: SEE STARS AFTER DRINKING WINE
– NEED TO SOBER UP
470 The Remaining 1130 Characters