480531170

1305
L2
雇
KO, yatou
employ, hire
12 strokes
KOYŌemployment
yatoiNINemployee, servant
KAIKOdismissal
OBI ; seal . Has 120 ‘door’, and 324
‘short-tailed bird, bird’. Analyses differ over .
Mizukami takes it as having a semantic function
(‘door, room, house’), and looks to link it to a wordfamily
in early Chinese meaning ‘protect, shut/
close, cover over’, giving overall meaning ‘keep
bird in an enclosure’; by extension, ‘bring others
into one’s own home’, and by further extension
1306
誇
KO, hokoru
boast, proud
L1
13 strokes
KODAIexaggeration
KOJIostentation
hokorigaoproud look
Seal ; late graph (Shuowen). Has 118 ‘words;
speak’, and CO (originally ‘straddle with thighs
1307
鼓
KO, tsuzumi
drum
L1
13 strokes
KODŌdrum beating
TAIKObig drum
kotsuzumihand drum
OBI ; seal . Has 壴 , generally taken as
a pictograph of a drum on a stand (with
decorative elements at the top: see also
379 [beans] and 811), and 717, which
was substituted (post-OBI and post-bronze,
probably in error) for 112 ‘hit, strike’ (in
clerical script occurrences of , often in its
alternative form ), giving an overall meaning
1308
錮
KO
confine, bind, plug
L1
16 strokes
KINKOimprisonment
KEIKINKOshort sentence
JŪKINKOlong sentence
‘hire’. is already found in the sense ‘employ’
in the official history of the Former Han Dynasty
(206BC – 8AD)(Schuessler). Another view (Shirakawa)
takes as phonetic, combining with
to denote a migratory bird, taken in ancient times
as an important indicator of seasons, for agriculture.
Nine such birds are listed in Shuowen under
the heading. Either of the above analyses could
probably generate ‘employ’ as an extension of
‘bring into one’s home/make use of’, as opposed
to taking it as a loan usage. MS1995:v2:1408-9;
AS2007:263; SS1984:279; DJ2009:303.
Mnemonic: A BIRD AT THE DOOR WANTS TO
BE EMPLOYED!?
curved’, with connotations of ‘big’), thus ‘big’ as
semantic and phonetic, giving ‘say big words,
be boastful’. Note: consists of 56 ‘big’, over
(original way of writing [curved peg-like
artefact: see 1031]) as phonetic with associated
sense ‘big’, thus again ‘say big words, boast’.
TA1965:421; OT1968:927; DJ2009:v1:208.
Mnemonic: BOAST ABOUT BIG CURVED
PEG-LIKE ARTEFACT
‘strike a drum’, and also just ‘drum’. An alternative
view is put forward by one commentator
(Katō), who takes the graph as ‘stick’ – possibly
‘bamboo stick’ – plus 壴 as phonetic, with the
latter serving a purely onomatopoeic role, to
give ‘hit, make a “zoku-zoku” sound’ (note: the
equivalent in early Chinese would be similar
to ‘tsok-tsok’); however, this view seems rather
forced. MS1995:v2:1518-21; GY2008:781,1542;
OT1968:1169; AS2007:473; SK1984:815.
Suggest taking the graph as 521 ‘samurai’,
‘topless’ beans’ , and ‘beat/strike
Mnemonic: SAMURAI TOPS BEANS TO THE
BEAT OF A DRUM
Seal ; late graph (Shuowen). Has 16
‘metal’, and 501 ‘solid, hard’ as semantic
and phonetic, giving ‘make solid with (molten)
metal, stop up’; sense later extended to ‘confine’,
and now only used in that sense. OT1968:1045;
GY2008:1608; AS2007:261.
Mnemonic: CONFINE BINDINGS TO HARD METAL
388 The Remaining 1130 Characters