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1816
謎
nazo, MEI
plexed’. Several scholars take as phonetic
riddle, puzzle
(Ogawa, Shirakawa; associated sense unclear),
but another (Gu) puts forward a cred-
L1
17 strokes ( 謎 )
ible analysis by treating as both semantic
謎 nazokakeYamanashi Pref.
謎 nazotokisolving riddles
and phonetic in function, giving ‘word
which perplexes’, i.e. ‘secret word, slang’.
謎 nazonazo Riddle me!
OT1968:942; SS1984:820; GY2008:1338.
Seal ; late graph (late version of Shuowen). Mnemonic: LOST IN A RIDDLE OF PUZZLING
Has 118 ‘words’, with 817 ‘lost, per- WORDS
1817
鍋
nabe, KA
pot, saucepan
L1
17 strokes
nabemonofood served in pot
DOnabeearthen pot
hiranabe pan
A very late post-Shuowen graph. Has 16
‘metal’, with (CO, ‘distorted mouth’; see
Note below) as phonetic with associated
sense ‘hollow shape’, giving ‘metal artefact
with hollow centre’, i.e. ‘pot, pan’. Note:
comprises 22 ‘mouth’, with 冎 (see also
877 and 1325) as phonetic with associated
sense ‘distorted’. 冎 is interpreted as
‘empty skull’ (Katō) or ‘skull and top of
spine’ (Mizukami). OT1968:1047; SS1984:81;
MS1995:V1:108-9; KJ1970:328. We suggest
taking 659 as ‘topless’ tower (see also
‘high’ 132).
Mnemonic: METAL POTS ARE MADE IN
TOPLESS TOWER
1818
軟
NAN, yawarakai
soft
L2
11 strokes
JŪNANsoft, pliable
NANKAsoftening
NANSUI soft water
Seal ( 輀 ) ; late graph (Shuowen). Has
33 ‘vehicle’, with (‘beard’: see Note below)
as phonetic with associated sense ‘soft’, giv-
ing ‘vehicle with wheels wrapped with reeds
to soften vibrations’ > ‘soft’. Examples of
are found in clerical script; the element
may have evolved from a cursivized form of
. Note: 11 th century Jiyun dictionary has
(’weak body’) as phonetic instead of ,
giving the variant form 輭 . DJ2009:v3:1181;
T1968:982; KJ1970:748,633; SK1984:699:
FC1974:v2:1787-9. Take as ‘lack’ 496.
Mnemonic: VEHICLE LACKS SOFTNESS
1819
尼
NI, ama
nun, priestess
L1
5 strokes
NISŌpriestess, nun
amaderaconvent
BIKUNI* Buddhist nun
Seal ; a late graph (Shuowen). Analyses
diverge. One view takes as ‘person
slumped/lying down, corpse’ 256, but here
‘lame person’, with (‘bent leg/ladle’ [see
Appendix]) as phonetic with associated
sense ‘stop’, giving ‘lame person stops’ (Katō).
In another view, is taken as meaning just
‘person’, with as semantic, serving as abbreviation
of 792 (originally, depiction of
two people lined up; ‘compare’), giving ‘line
up’ (Tōdō). Shirakawa, alternatively, takes
542 The Remaining 1130 Characters