480531170

1850
L1
漠
BAKU
vague, vast, desert
13 strokes
BAKUZENvague
BAKUBAKUvast, vague
SABAKU desert
Seal ; late graph (Shuowen). Has 42 ‘water’,
with ‘not’ (and other negative senses)’
(original way of writing 982 ‘sunset’, q.v.),
taken in one view (Gu) as semantic and pho-
netic, thus ‘lack of water’ and hence ‘desert’.
In another view is taken as phonetic only
with associated sense ‘vast, expansive’ (Shirakawa),
though combined with this would
seemingly lead to a meaning opposite to that
proposed by Gu. GY2008:1652; SS1984:693;
WD1974:525-6. Take as water 42, plants
53, ‘sun’ 66, and ‘big’ 56.
Mnemonic: IN VAST DESERT, BIG PLANTS
NEED SUN AND WATER
1851
L1
縛
BAKU, shibaru
bind
16 strokes
HOBAKUcapture
SOKUBAKUrestraint
shibarikubihanging
Seal ; late graph (Shuowen). Has 29
‘thread’, with 尃 (CO, ‘field of plant seedlings’,
or ‘truss up sapling roots’; see 1849 Note).
尃 is treated as phonetic with associated
sense taken as i] ‘stick, attach’ (Ogawa), or ii]
‘bind’ (Shirakawa, Gu), both giving overall
meaning ‘bind with thread/cord’. Note: if 尃
is seen as ‘truss up sapling roots’, its role here
is both semantic and phonetic. OT1968:788;
SS1984:693; GY2008:1674. As in 1849 (q.v.)
take ‘almost sole’.
Mnemonic: THREAD IS USED ALMOST
SOLELY FOR BINDING
1852
爆
BAKU
burst, explode
L2
19 strokes
BAKUHATSUexplosion
BAKUDANbomb
GENBAKUatom bomb
Seal ; late graph (Shuowen). Has 8 ‘fire’,
with 814 (‘violence’) as phonetic with associated
sense taken in one view as ‘flames
fly’, giving ‘fireworks burst open’ (Ogawa).
In similar vein, Tōdō tends towards ‘sparks
(from fire) fly’ as the original associated
sense, and sees ‘burn and burst open’ as the
extended meaning. Another view sees
as onomatopoeic, and the graph is taken
as representing sound of such things as
firewood or bamboo crackling or popping
while burning (Katō; Shirakawa is also of this
view). By extension, ‘explode’. OT1968:629;
TA1965:278; KJ1970:777-8; SS1984:694.
Mnemonic: FIRE CAUSES VIOLENT
EXPLOSION
1853
箸
hashi
chopsticks
L1
15 strokes ( 箸 )
箸 hashiokirest for chopsticks
箸 hibashitongs
箸 waribashihalf-split chopsticks
Seal ; late graph (Shuowen). Has 58
‘bamboo’, with 314 / ‘person’. is taken
in one view as phonetic with associated sense
‘pick up’, giving ‘(pieces of) bamboo for picking
up food’ (Katō, Ogawa). Gu, however, takes
as both semantic and phonetic, linking it to
the original meaning indicated by the bronze
552 The Remaining 1130 Characters