480531170

551
L3
折
SETSU, ori, oru/reru
bend, break, occasion
7 strokes
KOSSETSUbroken bone
orimefold, crease
origamiorigami
OBI ; seal . OBI forms show 1233 ‘ax’,
pointing to an element of vegetation (see 53) to
give ‘cut/break up vegetation’, and by extension
‘break, bend’ in general. At seal script stage,
the vegetation element was changed to 34
‘hand’ in error due to similarity in early shapes
for ‘vegetation’ and ‘hand’. The use (Japanese
only) of ori for ‘occasion’ is a kun-based
phonetic loan. OT1968:450; YK1976:310-11;
MS1995:v1:550-51.
Mnemonic: HAND-AX CAN BREAK OR BEND
552
L3
節
13
SETSU, SECHI, fushi
section, restrain, tune,
period, joint
strokes
CHŌSETSUadjustment
KANSETSUjoint
SETSUYAKUthrift
Bronze ; seal . Has 58 ‘bamboo’, and
/ 1650 (person kneeling before large
food container, now ‘namely’) as phonetic
with associated sense ‘cut’, to give ‘bamboo
cut in sections’ or ‘bamboo joint’, and then
generalized to ‘section, joint’. ‘Section’ came
to encompass a range of abstract senses such
as a written or musical passage, or to refer to
time (‘period’, ‘season’). ‘Cut/cut off’ also links
semantically to ‘restrain’, which is another
meaning of . MS1995:v2:990-91; KJ1970:617-
18; YK1976:312-13; OT1968:753.
Mnemonic: BAMBOO HAS JOINTS, NAMELY
SECTIONS
553
L4
説
SETSU, toku
preach, explain
14 strokes
SETSUMEIexplanation
SHŌSETSUnovel
GAKUSETSUtheory
Seal ; late graph (Shuowen). Traditional form
has on right. Views vary. Has 118 ‘words,
speech’, and NJK / (shaman – one who
invokes and disseminates to the gods the will
of humans) as either semantic or phonetic.
554
浅
SEN, asai
shallow, light
L3
9 strokes
SENPAKUshallowness
asaseshallows
asagilight yellow
Yamada and Shirakawa take semantically as
‘shaman who invokes the gods’; Katō, however,
sees here as phonetic with associated sense
‘set up, establish’. Resultant overall meaning
of based on the above is ‘disseminate/
set out ideas through language’. YK1976:313;
SS1984:513; KJ1970:602-3. Suggest as ‘elder
brother’ 114 with ‘eight’ 70, often used to
show dispersal, as here.
Mnemonic: ELDER BROTHER DISPERSES
WORDS, PREACHING AWAY
Seal ; late graph (Shuowen). Has 42 ‘water’,
and (‘two halberds; fight, injure’ – see 545)
as phonetic with associated sense ‘few, little’,
to give ‘little water’, and hence ‘shallow’. ‘Light
(in color)’ is an extended sense. KJ1970:760-61;
YK1976:316; OT1968:575; TA1965:569.
Mnemonic: SHALLOW WATER – JUST DEPTH
OF TWO HALBERDS
The 200 Fourth Grade Characters 185