480531170

1765
L2
殿
DEN, TEN,tono, dono
palace, lord, Mr
13 strokes
KYŪDENpalace
GOTEN palace
tonosama lord
Seal ( ) ; late graph (Shuowen). Views
diverge. One view treats as ‘strike’ 170
(see Note below), with left hand part of
(explained below) taken as phonetic, serving
as onomatopoeic for the sound of hitting
something, to give ‘hit something and make
noise’ (Katō, Ogawa). This view is based on
traditional explanation in Shuowen. Tōdō
takes a different view, following instead
information from the Han Dynasty character
textbook Jijiupian, which explains as ‘hit
buttocks of criminal with bamboo whip’. In
this view, left hand part of represents a
pair of buttocks seated on a stand or similar
This seems a reasonable assessment of the
seal form, and one which results in the more
specific overall meaning for . Later
came to be used to represent other words
which were homophones or near-homophones
such as ‘rear (of army)’ (noted by
Schuessler) and ‘heavy foundations’. Based
on the latter sense, came to be used by
further extension for big buildings with
heavy foundations such as palaces (Tōdō
says this meaning evolved from the Qin Dynasty
onwards). In texts in the clerical script,
examples can be found of written in what
was then a variant form, i.e. ; over time,
this came to be the norm for this graph.
Note: has 2003 ‘hand’ holding , a
very stylized version of what in OBI occurrences
of is a depiction of halberd or similar.
KJ1970:189-90; OT1968:547; TA1965:676-
82; SK1984:431; MS1995:v1:408-10,712-14;
AS2007:211. Take as slumped person, and
‘together’ 484.
Mnemonic: TOGETHER WITH LORD, STRIKE
SLUMPED PERSON AT PALACE
1766
斗
TO
dipper, measure
L1
4 strokes
HOKUTOSEIBig Dipper
TOSHUkegs of sake
TAITO an authority
OBI ; seal . Originally (OBI), pictograph
of scoop or ladle; probably at that
stage the same graph as 1485 (q.v.).
Distinguished in shape from at least
1767
吐
TO, haku
disgorge, vomit
L1
6 strokes
TOZAIemetic
hakikenausea
TOiki gasp, sigh
from seal stage, eventually resulting in two
quite distinct forms. By extension, came
to denote a unit of measure – in modern
Japan, ca.18 litres (cf. ca.1.8 liters).
Other senses such as ‘Big Dipper’ (constellation
name) may be seen as loan usages.
MS1995:v1:590-92,166-7; MM1993:378;
OT1968:447,137; SS1984:635,435;
SK1984:354-6,115-6.
Mnemonic: BIG DIPPER HAS SLOPING CROSS
AND TWO DOTS!?
Seal ; a late graph (Shuowen). Has 22
‘mouth, speak’, with 64 (‘earth, ground’) as
phonetic with associated sense taken either as
i] ‘push out’, giving ‘push out from the mouth’
(Katō), or ii] ‘become full, come together in
one place’, giving ‘that which is pent-up inside
and close to bursting point is disgorged all
together’ (Tōdō). Either way, ‘disgorge, vomit’.
KJ1970:730; TA1965:325-7.
Mnemonic: DISGORGE VOMIT FROM MOUTH
TO GROUND
526 The Remaining 1130 Characters