480531170

873
降
KŌ, furu, oriru/rosu
fall, descend
L3
10 strokes
KŌKAdescent
KŌSUIprecipitation
noriorigetting on and off
OBI ; seal . Has 1907 ‘hill/terraced
slope’ (Shirakawa takes as ‘ladder for deities
to descend’), and 夅 , originally showing two
feet pointing downwards for ‘descend’, thus
‘descend hill/slope’ > ‘descend’. QX2000:192;
SS1984:304YK1976:182-3; KJ1970:157;
MS1995:v2:1394-5; OT1968:1067. Take as
‘crosslegged’ 213, and as ‘well’ 1575.)
Mnemonic: DESCEND HILL AND SIT
CROSS-LEGGED BY WELL
874
鋼
KŌ, hagane
steel
L1
16 strokes
KŌTETSUsteel
SEIKŌJOsteelworks
hagane-irosteel blue
A very late graph (Yupian). Has 16 ‘metal’, and
NJK, ‘ridge of hill, hill’; itself is originally
made up of 26 ‘mountain’ under , the latter
875
L3
刻
8
KOKU, kizamu
chop, mince, engrave,
harsh
strokes
JIKOKUtime, hour
KOKUINengraved seal
kizamimenotch
Seal ; late graph (Shuowen). Has 198
‘knife, cut’, and (NJK, ‘wild boar’) as phonetic
with associated sense ‘cut into, mark, engrave’,
as abbreviation of ‘net’ (see also 570), giving
either ‘long’ (as with a net drawn out), and hence
‘long ridge of hills’, or ‘high, hard hills/ plateau’
(Mizukami). Commentators generally take
in as phonetic with associated sense ‘strong,
hard’, to give ‘strong metal which cuts through
things’, and so ‘tempered iron, steel’. YK1976:185-
6; OT1968:1045; SS1984:314.
Mnemonic: METAL IN HILLS IS MADE INTO
STEEL
giving ‘engrave wood with a knife’, though
cutting up an animal was probably the original
sense, as Shirakawa suggests. ‘Severe, intense’ is
treated as an extended meaning by Schuessler.
Yamada looks to identify several bronze
forms. YK1976:188; KJ1970:144; OT1968:115;
SS1984:321; AS2007:334. We suggest taking
as variant of ‘threads, bindings’ 29.
Mnemonic: CUT UP A WILD BOAR, BINDINGS
AND ALL
876
穀
KOKU
grain, cereal
L1
14 strokes
KOKUMOTSUcereals
KOKURUIcereals
KOKUSŌgranary
Seal ; traditional ; a late graph (Shuowen).
Has 87 ‘grain plant’ (not just ‘rice’; foxtail
millet was a common grain in ancient China),
and (CO; originally, percussion instrument
on wooden stand) as phonetic with associated
sense ‘hard exterior’, giving ‘grain with
husk intact’. Used to denote grains in general.
YK1976:190; KJ1970:409; OT1968:735,546;
AS2007:273. We suggest taking 112 as hand
holding threshing tool, as ‘samurai’ 521,
as cover, and ‘grain plant’ 87.
Mnemonic: SAMURAI THRESHES GRAIN THEN
PUTS IT UNDER COVER
272 The 181 Sixth Grade Characters