480531170

178
L3
組
SO, kumi, kumu
group, assemble
11 strokes
SOSHIKIorganization
kumiaiunion
kumitateassembly
Bronze forms such as often include
2003 ‘hand’ (later omitted in seal script). Has
29 ‘thread’ and phonetic 1135 (based
on pictograph– possibly meat – piled up in a
vessel as an offering), with/without ‘hand’, with
associated sense i] ‘accumulate’ (Ogawa), or ii]
‘mix, accumulate’ (Mizukami), giving ‘cord made
of threads put together. ‘Group’ and ‘assemble’
are extended meanings. MS1995:v2:1012-3;
TA1965:364-7; OT1968:775,18.
Mnemonic: THE GROUP ASSEMBLES PILES OF
THREADS
179
走
SŌ, hashiru
run
L4
7 strokes
KYŌSŌrace
SŌKŌtravelling
hashirigakiscrawl
Lower part of bronze form has 143 (here
‘foot’); upper element (NJK, ‘calamity’ [loan
use, pictograph of person with head inclined])
as phonetic with associated sense ‘move
limbs rapidly’, and so ‘run’ (Qiu says ‘jog, trot’,
Tōdō says ‘walk hurriedly’). Modern Japanese
preserves the meaning ‘run’ from early Chinese,
but in modern Chinese (Mandarin) means
‘walk/go’. MS1995:v2:1254-6; KJ1970:643-4;
QX2000:196; TA1965:298-9. Suggest taking
upper element as 64 ‘ground’, and lower element
as ‘foot’ (see 143).
Mnemonic: FOOT RUNNING ALONG GROUND
180
多
TA, ōi
many
L5
6 strokes
TASŪmajority
TAMENTEKImany-sided
ōsugitoo much/many
OBI form is , depicting one piece of meat
/209 over another and giving the meanings
‘meat piled up, plentiful meat; plentiful’.
Shuowen (along with Katō) analyzes it as 46
‘moon/evening’ duplicated, but this would appear
to be based on the later, very similar seal
script shapes: the graphs for ‘meat’ and ‘evening’
are more contrastive in OBI. MS1995:v1:292-3;
MR2007:360; SS1984:559-60; KJ1985:142. We
suggest taking ‘evening / moon’ for an easier
mnemonic.
Mnemonic: MANY MOONS, MANY EVENINGS
181
L4
太
TAI, TA, futoi, futoru
fat, big
4 strokes
TAISHIprince
TAIYŌsun
futoJIbold type
A very late graph (Yupian). Noted in the Kangxi
zidian as identical with both 56 and 1665,
meaning ‘big’. Tōdō includes it in a word family
meaning ‘loose; latitude’. Katō sees the extra
stroke as denoting especially big even among
other big things. DJ2009:v1:195; TA1965:525-7;
Katō 1985:144.
Mnemonic: FAT IS A BIT MORE THAN JUST BIG
90 The 160 Second Grade Characters