Word Family of Terms Originally Pronounced SUG

Semantic Values of the Sound SUG: Small/Thin/Slender + Circle/Mass




  The SUG word family is a branch of the TUG word family, emphasizing applications that have in particular to do with smallness, thinness or slenderness.

　Terms in this word family suggest that with respect to small/thin/slender objects there is an element of circularity and/or of massing. We find fingers compressed about a prisoner's ear in 取, compression of time in 走 and 趣, compression of a sacrificial animal in 奏, and an enumeration of bound female slaves in 数.

　Among the non-Everyday Use Characters, we find the following examples:

Bundles of bound grass (芻)
Swarming/collecting (簇)
The corner of a hillside settlement (陬)
A horse galloping in a corral (驟)
Ships in a port/harbor assembled in a tight group (湊)
Take a firm grasp of (掫)
The spokes of a wheel, converging in the hub (輳)
Pucker the lips to whistle, or to rinse/gargle (嗾, 漱)
Wrinkled skin (皺)
The skin layer compressed between the epidermis and bone/muscle (腠)
A round-shaped chick (雛)
Fish of compact size (鯫)
A round, bamboo basket (籔)

　Extensions of meaning or abstract applications of the senses noted above are found in the remaining characters in this group.




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