480531170

1907
阜
FU
pit, with ‘hill, mound’ as an extended sense.
hill, mound
Another view sees it as showing ladder for
L1
8 strokes
deities to use for descending and ascending
to Heaven (Shirakawa). We provisionally
FUTŌwharf
follow ‘hill, mound’ as original meaning, and
GIFUSHIGifu City
terraced slopes as extended sense. In compound
GIFUKEN Gifu Prefecture
graphs, 262 always occurs as as
left-hand element, never right; to be distinguished
carefully from 376 as right-hand
OBI ; seal . Taken to have been originally
pictograph, but views differ as to object
element, an abbreviation of ‘settlement,
depicted. One view treats as hills at various
village’, as in ‘capital’, for instance. Regarding
change in shape between seal and block
levels (Mizukami, Ogawa); Ma takes ‘(naturally
formed) mounds’. But why are the hills
script, Mizukami suggests lower element
(if that is what is they are) standing on end,
‘ten’ 35 was added – based on word-family
as it were? Katō suggests earliest writing
association – with a meaning ‘collect, gather’;
of this graph would have been horizontally
some support is to be found for this in Tōdō,
oriented, but was later changed to vertical;
who includes in word-family ‘pile up
Ma agrees. This seems reasonable, bearing in
together’. MS1995:v2:1390-91; OT1968:1063;
mind that orientation of graphs in OBI texts
KJ1970:659; MR2007:506; GY2008:661;
often fluctuated. OBI and later forms, though,
SS1984:739; TA1965:796-9. We suggest taking
all have vertical orientation. Possibly this
main body as terraces, as ‘ten’, with little
change occurred at a very early OBI stage, but
stick on top.
at present we lack evidence. Alternatively,
Gu takes original meaning as footholds to go
up and down for access to a cave dwelling or
Mnemonic: HILLY MOUNDS ARE TEN
TERRACES WITH A LITTLE STICK ON TOP
1908
L1
附
FU, tsuku/keru
attach(/ed)
8 strokes
FUZOKUaffiliated
KIFUcontribution
mitsuke castle gate approach
Seal . Has 262 ‘hill, mound’, with 602
(‘attach’) as phonetic with associated sense
taken as i] ‘small’, giving ‘small hill’ (Ogawa),
or ii] ‘small mound’, giving ‘hill, mound’
(Katō), or iii] ‘stick/continue close together’,
giving ‘places where land is put close up
together’ (noted in Mizukami), or iv] ‘grant,
bestow’, giving ‘spirits of the dead come
down and take food with descendants’. Analysis
iii] leads most directly to ‘be attached,
attach’ as an extended sense. OT1968:1065;
KJ1970:823; MS1995:v2:1392-3; SS1984:739.
Mnemonic: ONE GETS ATTACHED TO HILLY
MOUNDS
1909
訃
FU
obituary
L1
9 strokes
FUONnews of a death
FUKOKUobituary
FUHŌ report of a death
A late, post-Shuowen graph; listed in Yupian.
Consists of 118 ‘words, speak’, with 96/
1598 (‘perform divination’, see) as phonetic
with associated sense ‘hurry’. According to
Qiu, originally the graph 1910 ‘proceed to’
acquired the extended sense ‘rush to announce
somebody’s death’, and this latter sense was
570 The Remaining 1130 Characters