480531170

1248
串
kushi, KAN
pierce, skewer
L2
7 strokes
kushizashiskewering
kushiyakispit roasted
yakigushiskewer, spit
Originally, pictograph of items such as shell
currency on a cord (Gu, who gives an apparent
OBI and seal forms, takes the items as being on
a cord or alternatively a stick). ‘Pierce, penetrate’
is an extended sense, as also is ‘skewer’.
GY2008:433; SS1984:117-8.
Mnemonic: PIERCE ITEMS WITH A SKEWER
1249
L1
屈
8
KUTSU
crouch, bend,
submit
strokes
KUPPUKUsurrender
FUKUTSUunyielding
KUSSEKIrefraction
Bronze ; seal . Has , here not ‘corpse/
bending person’ but an abbreviation of 1888
(‘tail’), which originally had the sense ‘genitalia’
or ‘posterior’ (and by extension, ‘copulate’).
This combines with 36 ‘put out’, meaning
‘remove’, giving overall meaning ‘remove geni-
talia’/ ‘castrate’. This analysis of is widely held.
However, Ogawa takes as phonetic with
associated sense ‘crush, break’, but Mizukami
rejects this. The modern meaning ‘bend’ (and
by extension, ‘subjugate’) according to Qiu
originated in loan usage of as a substitute
for 詘 ‘bend’, a graph disused by Western Han
times. Shirakawa sees as wild animal with
bending tail, but early forms suggest otherwise.
AS2007:435,191,511; QX2000:129-30,389;
MS1995:v1:408-9; OT1968:296; SS1984:221-2.
Take as buttocks.
Mnemonic: PUT OUT BUTTOCKS IN SUB-
MISSIVE CROUCH!?
1250
掘
KUTSU, horu
dig
L2
11 strokes
HAKKUTSUexcavation
horidasudig out, unearth
SAIKUTSUmining
Seal ; late graph (Shuowen). Has 34 hand,
and 1249 (‘crouch’) as phonetic with associated
sense usually taken as ‘scoop up’, thus
‘dig out, dig’. Katō, however, takes associated
sense as ‘turn soil with plow’, thus ‘turn soil by
hand and make hole’. is given in Shuowen as
‘dig out’; for the similar-shaped graph 1990
(‘ditch’), Shuowen gives meaning ‘rabbit digs/
rabbit warren’. Some early texts seem to show
interchangeability or confusion of usage between
and . OT1968:417; TA1965:707-10;
AS2007:337; KJ1970:304-5.
Mnemonic: CROUCH TO DIG BY HAND
1251
L1
窟
KUTSU, iwaya
cave, den
13 strokes
DŌKUTSUcave, cavern
SŌKUTSUden, hangout
MAKUTSUbrothel
Seal ; a late graph (Yupian). Later (post-seal)
form replaces 64 ‘earth, ground’ with 860
‘hole, cave’, and 1249 (‘bend, crouch’) as
phonetic with associated sense taken as ‘dig’
(Ogawa); Schuessler, though, gives first meaning
for as ‘dig in the ground, underground’.
Tōdō, for his part, takes this graph as signifying
‘cave/hole hollowed out in a round shape’.
Perhaps best taken as ‘that which has been dug
out’ (whether by human endeavor or forces of
nature). OT1968:742; AS2007:337; TA1965:710;
GY2008:1665. Note: is grouped together
with (‘moat, ditch, canal’ 1990) by Gu and
Schuessler.
Mnemonic: CROUCH TO GET INTO CAVE
The Remaining 1130 Characters 371