480531170

2019
L1
麺
MEN
noodles, wheat, flour
16 strokes
MENRUInoodles
MENBŌ rolling pin
SEIMENJO noodle factory
Seal ; a late graph (Shuowen); traditional
. Consists of ‘wheat, barley’ (later
213, q.v.), with 丏 (CO; original meaning
uncertain: interpretations include ‘floating
plant’ [Mizukami] and ‘corpse’ [Shirakawa]) as
phonetic [associated sense unclear]). , now
the standard form in Japanese, with 417
‘face’ as phonetic, appears to be a late variant.
OT1968:1161; SS1984:821,774; MS1995:v1:6-8.
Mnemonic: ON THE FACE OF IT, NOODLES
ARE MADE FROM WHEAT
2020
L1
茂
MO, shigeru
grow thickly
8 strokes
HANMOthick growth
MORIN dense forest
shigemi thicket
Seal ; late graph (Shuowen). Has 53
‘plants’, with (NJK, ‘[type of] halberd/
battle-ax’ 1591; see Note below) as phonetic
with associated sense taken as i] ‘cover’, giving
‘plants cover’ (Tōdō, Ogawa), or ii] ‘luxuriant,
abundant’, giving ‘luxuriant vegetation’ (Gu,
Katō). Note: Mizukami also lists ‘(type of)
plane’ as possible meaning for , which was
originally a pictograph, though the OBI and
bronze forms do suggest a weapon rather
than a tool. TA1965:237-8; OT1968:850,392;
GY2008:560; KJ1970:872; MS1995:v1:532-3.
Mnemonic: PLANTS GROW THICKLY – HAVE
TO CUT DOWN WITH HALBERD
2021
妄
MŌ, BŌ, midari
irrational, rash
L1
6 strokes
MŌSŌdelusion
BŌGENharsh words
MEIMŌfallacy
Bronze ; seal . Has 37 ‘woman’, with
985 ‘die, escape’ taken in one view as
semantic and phonetic meaning ‘hidden,
not clear’ (see Note below), giving original
sense ‘unclear on account of woman, unclear
because bewitched by woman’ (Mizukami,
Tōdō). Another analysis treats as phonetic
with associated sense ‘illogical, unreasonable’
(Ogawa). Either way, the extended
sense is ‘random, arbitrary’. Note: early
meanings for listed by Schuessler include
‘lose, disappear’, which lends support to
the interpretation made by Mizukami and
Tōdō. MS1995:v1:312-3; TA1965:445-8;
OT1968:252.
Mnemonic: IRRATIONAL AND RASH WOMAN
DIES
604 The Remaining 1130 Characters