480531170

meaning taken either as i] ‘fine, fresh’, giving
‘fresh vegetation (for ruminants)’ (Katō), or ii]
‘put in order, arrange’, giving ‘put vegetation
(or other items) in order and offer’ (Tōdō). The
meaning ‘recommend’ is an extended sense.
Note also that a seemingly unrelated meaning
of this character is that of straw mat or matting,
such as the matting around a sake bottle.
This meaning would appear to be a loan
usage, though it may be semantically linked
with vegetation. OT1968:874; KJ1970:769;
TA1965:569-71. We suggest taking this difficult
character as 53 ‘grass/plant’, 127
building and the remainder as a ‘bird’
190 with an ‘odd’ head.
Mnemonic: BIRD WITH ODD HEAD RECOM-
MENDS STRAW MATTING FOR BUILDING
1611
L1
繊
SEN
fine, slender
17 strokes
SEN’I fiber
SENSAI nafine, delicate
SENMŌ cilia, fine hairs
Seal ; a late graph (Shuowen); traditional
. Has 29 ‘thread’, and 韱 (CO, ‘wild leek/
chives/garlic’ [plant within the Allium genus])
taken in one analysis as both semantic and
phonetic in the extended sense ‘small, fine’,
giving ‘many fine threads’ (Ogawa). Another
analysis prefers to treat 韱 alternatively as
1612
鮮
SEN, azayaka
fresh, vivid, clear
L1
17 strokes
SENGYOfresh fish
SENMEI naclear, vivid
CHŌSEN Korea
Bronze ; seal . Interpretations differ. According
to Shuowen, referred to a type of fish,
and 426 ‘sheep’ stood here as an abbreviation
for 羴 ‘odor of sheep’; this explanation does
not necessarily mean, though, that the original
meaning was a type of fish. According to Qiu,
was borrowed to write another, more complicated
graph 鱻 meaning ‘many fresh fish’, and
possibly by extension on this basis for ‘fresh,
new’. Alternatively, considered to be 109 ‘fish’,
phonetic in function with associated sense
‘something sharp [= ‘blade’] thrusts in’,
though this commentator (Tōdō) notes that
in the graph the associated sense is ‘fine,
slender’. Alternatively, ‘cut up fine’ is taken
as the associated sense of 韱 . The overall
original meaning of is ‘fine-textured silk/
fabric’; this then became generalized to ‘fine,
slender’. OT1968:790; TA1965:848-52. In addition
to thread, we suggest taking as variant
of 48 ‘red’ plus one , and as halberd
(see 545).
Mnemonic: CUT ONE SLENDER RED THREAD
WITH HALBERD
with (‘sheep’ as abbreviation for 羴 ‘odor of
sheep’) as phonetic with associated sense taken
as ‘live’, and so ‘live fish’ (Ogawa), ‘fresh’ being
regarded as an extended sense. A different
interpretation, based on historical sound values
in early Chinese, is that is not an abbreviation
of 羴 serving as a phonetic, and that instead
the right-hand element was – and is – in its
semantic function as ‘sheep’, giving ‘raw flesh of
fish and sheep’ (Tōdō). At one stage 1612 had a
minor meaning of ‘few’, which was a loan usage,
but is now virtually defunct. DJ2009:v3:949;
QX2000:198; MS1995:v2:1494-6,1044-5;
OT1968:1144; TA1965:568.
Mnemonic: SHEEP AND FISH SHOULD BE
BRIGHT AND FRESH
478 The Remaining 1130 Characters