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An Etymological Dictionary of Chinese Characters
Interpretations by Lawrence J. Howell and Hikaru Morimoto |
| Covering 6,500 Chinese characters as used in Japan |
Links
The Chinese characters and Japanese phonetic scripts (hiragana and katakana) appearing within this page of the Kanji Networks online etymological dictionary belong to the UTF-8 character set, which is a form of Unicode. If your browser displays blank squares, question marks or gibberish instead of these Sino-Japanese characters, go here for a solution.
On another subject, please note that you can set your browser to enlarge the text on this page. If you are not sure of the method, go here.
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Chinese Characters/Chinese Language Sino-Tibetan Kanji/Japanese Dictionaries Kanji Practice Japanese as a Second Language Linguistics/Online Dictionaries/Language Reference Japan Links + Alpha Etymology Indo-European Educational Institutes Search Engines/Web Communities Net Friends Tools Miscellaneous
Chinese Characters/Chinese Language
The Why Study Chinese Etymology Page of Richard Sears' Chinese Etymology site features topics such as "Pictographs and Ideographs," "Meaning and Interpretation,""Traditional Chinese vs. Simplified Chinese" and "Modern Common Chinese Characters." Many links for resources concerning written Chinese.
The Chinese Writing System pages of Greg Pringle's cjvlang site.
SmartHanzi allows you to paste Chinese text in a box to obtain pinyin readings for specified characters as well as direct access to related terms in the CEDICT Chinese/English Dictionary file. Students of Japanese may check out SmartKanji, a related site.
Marjorie Chan's ChinaLinks has over 600 links to Chinese language resources sites. On a separate page is her Word Lists and Online Glossaries/Dictionaries for Chinese and Japanese, which also includes links to several sites dealing with Internal Codes for Chinese, Japanese and Korean.
The Chinese characters page of proel.org includes reproductions of the shell-and-bone, bronzeware inscription and seal forms of the characters, along with relevant maps, the 214 traditional radicals, stroke order principles and much more. This beautiful, Spanish-language site offers meticulously illustrated presentations of other ancient writing systems as well, such as Hittite, Aramaic, Etruscan and cuneiform characters.
Renaud Bouret's ramou.net is an outstanding French-language site offering a Chinese-French dictionary, texts and a variety of other Chinese-language resources.
Harmen Mesker's Character Analysis is a series of well-written and intriguing considerations of questions pertaining to the ancient Chinese literary classics.
Comparative Chart of Ancient Initials for Middle Chinese, compiled by James Campbell.
Besides scoping out the Chinese, Japanese, and other languages links on the Languages and Linguistics page of Mike Wright's RaccoonBend site, you can check out his iDataTM 2 database program for storing information in various languages.
Joerg Sziegat's German-language xuexizhongwen.de has an outstanding annotated collection of links to German, English and Chinese-language sites concerning Sinological studies. Joerg also has a lot of information about Chinese-language software.
The artistry of ancient Chinese characters comes alive at 佐藤圭 (Satou Kei)'s 古代文字を現代空間へ. Her works on granite, charcoal, bamboo and ceramics are simply exquisite.
For those seeking a one-of-a-kind, kanji-themed gift at an affordable price, kuubokumon will engrave your choice of Chinese character into an elegant pendant or bracelet made of fired clay.
漢字の写真字典 Photo dictionary of rare Chinese characters is a collection of shots taken in mainland China, Taiwan, Korea, Japan, Malaysia etc. The photos are accompanied by detailed explanations (in Japanese).
Sino-Tibetan
The Sino-Tibetan Etymological Dictionary and Thesaurus
Kanji/Japanese Dictionaries
Jim Breen's WWWJDIC Japanese-English Dictionary Server offers English-Japanese and Japanese-English dictionaries, a kanji database, text translation and much more. Applications for keitai as well. Jim's famous EDICT Project has produced a Japanese-English Dictionary file with over 100,000 entries.
The demo version (with 440 characters) of ramou.net’s interactive online kanji dictionary has popup definitions, reference cards one can customize and smooth navigation features that newbies to Japanese will appreciate.
Hans-Jörg Bibiko's Japanisch-Deutsches Kanji-Lexikon.
漢字楽園. A site that advanced students of kanji will appreciate. Especially useful for those scaling the heights of the 漢字検定試験. The author is anonymous, but says the combined four-digit 区点コード for his/her name adds up to 12455. Happy sleuthing.
FOKS (Forgiving Online Kanji Search) is an interface using the EDICT-based dictionaries. The interface allows you to find a translation even when you don't know the exact reading of the term you want to look up.
Jonathon Sayles' English-Japanese dictionary arranges and displays select
terms by categories such as Wildlife, General Life and Science, with the Japanese equivalents given in both romaji and in kana/kanji.
Kanji Practice
Kanji Cafe's Ice Mocha program allows the creation of customized Japanese vocabulary lists for drilling. 160,000 sample Japanese sentences with English translations. Stroke Order Diagrams as well. By Jim Rose.
Drill the Kanji offers tests for the readings and meanings of 1620 characters. By Roger Meyer.
Collin McCulley's KanjiLab is a kanji flash card program with score tracking, sample compounds tied to the readings, and example sentences. The site also includes notes on and ideas for self-study of Japanese.
Students of Japanese who read French can profit from this set of script-generated random questionnaires on kanji and kana from orbite.
Japanese As a Second Language
A downloadable 285-page Japanese grammar book (PDF), online Japanese lessons, J/E-E/J online dictionary, a forum and other features, all offered on a no-charge-but-donations-welcomed basis, can be found at nihongoresources.com.
Jim Breen's Educational Resources is a gloriously extensive list of commercial and non-commercial sites.
The Japanese Writing System pages of Greg Pringle's cjvlang site.
In addition to a page of useful links for Japanese learning, Jouji Miwa offers uPAL (United Portal for Advanced Learning), a united dictionary search and speech synthesizing program worth checking out.
Ubiquitous Japanese Study (ユビキタス日本語学習) offers free Japanese language study materials directed at both teachers and students of the language. Also has a list of Japanese-language classes taught by volunteers in Japan.
Escale Japon offers free, self-teaching online lessons in Japanese, along with a forum, articles on Japanese and more. A French-language site from Karine.
Hans-Peter Gramatke's German-language pages on the Japanese writing system.
The 日本語の問題集 at sawayaka-life.com contains identify-the-mistaken-kanji and other exercises to test your Japanese skills. For advanced students. (Japanese-language site)
Teach Yourself Japanese, covering kana, basic greetings, vocabulary, dialogues and more. Message board for obtaining help from others. By Takasugi Shinji.
にほんご at www.nihongo.fr is an online Japanese study program. Though a French-language site, the administrator avers that the direct method employed makes the materials suitable for native speakers of other languages as well.
At 日本語Ｑ＆Ａ you can ask questions about Japanese and have them answered by a professional instructor. (Japanese-language site)
Leonardo Sasso's Nihongo site (in Spanish and English) assembles a useful collection of Japanese education resources.
Keiko Yokoo's links page points to sites of interest to teachers of Japanese as a second language. (Japanese-language site)
Yookoso has two mailing lists: Kanji a Day and Grammar a Day. The Editor's Favorites column has a good selection of links to Japanese-learning resources. By Jeff Blum.
At shiawase.com, Robert Belton shares his thoughts on software, web sites, iPod broadcasts and other sources for learning Japanese.
W. Jansen Heijtmajer's introduction to kana, NETWERK 2000, in parallel Dutch/English.
The Danish-language nihongo.dk offers Japanese grammar introductions, downloads, a forum and other features.
Japanophile is a French-Japanese-English site on Japan, the Japanese culture and its language.
Giapponese-x-te.com is an Italian site devoted to the study of the Japanese language.
Links for Japanese learning at JapanLinked
Japanska.se is a Swedish-language site with a forum and other features for students of Japanese.
Linguistics/Online Dictionaries/Language Reference
Tibor Majláth has a glorious collection of References and Links to printed publications and websites concerning various corners of the world of linguistics.
Tohoku University Professor GOTOO Hitoshi (後藤斉)'s Japanese and English pages of Linguistics websites in Japan.
alphaDictionary.com is a prime source of language dictionaries.
Karen Chung's Language and Linguistics Links is a comprehensive directory for journals, grammars, corpora, Chinese language reference sources and much more.
dmoz Open Directory Project
Douglas Brick's list of Japanese resources.
Claude Trudel's French-language Formatic 2000 offers links to over 9,000 sites pertaining to the humanities, the sciences, Internet/Media and more. The Dictionnaires page links to online dictionary and lexicographical sites of various languages.
Interlex, a free Windows application with many user-friendly features, allows you to create bilingual vocabularly lists for self-testing in any two of over 35 languages, including Dutch, English, French, German, Italian, Russian and Spanish.
Links to English-Japanese dictionaries at ATS
Judy Vorfeld - Webmaster Services; Editing and Writing Services has a page of Dictionaries and Glossaries links, plus links to slews of sites offering writing tips, grammar help and so on.
Language Automation, Inc. has a glossaries by language page listing online sources on languages running from Afrikaans to Urdu, with Jamaican, Maltese and Sumerian along the way.
The extensive compilation of dictionaries at The Linguist List
Language Directory provides links to free language courses, grammars, newspapers, online TV and radio stations for approximately 100 languages. The top page for each features a concise English-language introduction to the target language.
Language Learning Links Library is a portal for thousands of online dictionaries and teaching websites, as well as for sites offering language acquisition software.
Lexilogos is dictionary and lexicography enthusiast Xavier Negre’s French-language "virtual media library," interesting both in concept and contents.
The Lexiteria's alphaDictionary Site links to reference sources in over 300 languages, and enables users to search nearly 1,000 online dictionaries simultaneously.
The LANGUES ETRANGERES page of the superextensive French-language liensutiles (Useful Links) site presents annotated links to sites concerned with dialects, regional languages and patois, as well as to ancient languages.
Multilingual Books offers courses, software, and videos for Japanese and other languages. Links to online Japanese newspapers and radio stations as well. The Free Japanese Lessons and Courses page links to many of the sites offering help with Japanese grammar, vocabulary, kanji and kana etc.
Omniglot offers detailed information about 150 writing systems along with topics such as "Multilingual computing,""Script charts,"and "Useful phrases in many languages." Extensive links. By Simon Ager.
Password's links include a number of unusual dictionaries.
Rikai.com allows your browser to display instantaneous popups showing the readings and translations of kanji appearing on Japanese or Chinese pages. Also works for English to Japanese or to Spanish. An ingenious and invaluable study tool from Todd David Rudick.
Web German's Foreign Language References is a rich set of links with categories such as Lesser Taught Languages (Cornish, Kervarker, Lakhota etc.) and Endangered Languages (Frisan, Flamand, Ladino etc.). If you've always wanted to swear in 140+ languages, you can find a link to your dream site within the Multi-language Reference Resources (Polyglot) section.
Doshisha University Professor Yoichiro Hasebe's del.icio.us bookmarklets provide concise Japanese descriptions of many linguistics and computer science-related sites.
SearchLanguage.com is a languages resources directory.
This Japanese-language site has a concise collection of online dictionaries and other reference sources.
Here is an online dictionary collection from a Dutch site.
Here is a manually selected list of 800+ online dictionaries.
Juha-Petri Tyrkko's general language links, with some Japanese annotation.
Japan Links + Alpha
You can't go wrong with Keiko Schneider's Bookmarks, Charles Kelly's Select List of Japanese Language Study Sites at www.ManyThings.org, or Jim Becker's Internet Resources, all of which have carefully cultivated and extensive lists of Japan/Japanese links.
Internet Resources: 翻訳のためのインターネットリソース has a stunning collection of online resources for translators.
Japanophile.com features articles (in French and English) on Japan's language and culture, as well as on life in Japan, with accompanying photographs.
Ronald Hilhorst's kotowaza.org is a database containing more than 400 select proverbs with parallel Japanese/English/Dutch renderings.
Uchiyama is a comprehensive Dutch-language site with detailed information on various aspects of Japanese culture, plus a vast selection of links.
Compact lists of links for students of Japanese can be found at Kochi University of Technology professor Lawrie Hunter's Japanese Language for Learners page and Yuusuke Sakurai's 日本語学習のためのウェブリソース.
Unica's pages of Italian-language annotated links to Japanese language and culture sites.
Robert Mittelstaedt’s German-language annotated links to media, culture, and Japan sites.
Kaj Syrjänen's page of Finnish-language annotated links, mostly to Japan-related sites.
For speakers/readers of Dutch, Jarkko's webhoek, from Jarkko Huijts, offers annotated links in Dutch to Japanese language learning sites.
The Dictionaries page of the Japanese-language 千客千万来[実用情報] daily-use information site contains a categorized list of select online, Japanese-language dictionaries.
Intervall-audio is devoted to electronic music in Japan and Germany, and also has some Japanese-language and Japan guide links.
Ken McCrimmon's Japanese links.
Don Shorock's Japanese links.
Kostya's Japan Links
Etymology
語源由来辞典 supplies etymological explanations for 1,100 native Japanese or Sino-Japanese terms and expressions (also some loan words originating in English or other languages). (Japanese-language site)
When it comes to the etymology of English terms, Douglas Harper's Online Etymology Dictionary is the gold standard.
The etymology page of E.L. Easton's Materials for Teaching and Learning site includes sections on etymology online, the history of English, loan words, and neologisms.
Mike Campbell's Behind the Name: The Etymology and History of First Names traces the roots of common first names in English, Spanish, French, Arabic and other languages.
French etymology @ Globe-Gate is an excellent starting point for online treatments of French etymology.
Indo-European
Digging for commonalities between Sino-Tibetan and Indo-European languages can be all kinds of fun for linguistic archeologists. Here are a handful of Indo-European sites to get you started. The IEED (Indo-European Etymological Dictionary) project from the Department of Comparative Indo-European Linguistics at Leiden University. Next, two offerings from Bartleby.com: Indo-European and the Indo-Europeans by Calvert Watkins; Indo-European Roots Index. Used in conjunction with the material in Kanji Networks, this latter page allows you do your own etymological sleuthing for semantic overlaps in the initial consonants of proto-Chinese and of Indo-European.
You can find tutorials on many Indo-European languages at ielanguages.com. The Links page also has a tremendous selection of useful sites.
Educational Institutes Linking to Kanji Networks
Dresden University of Technology
Michigan State University
Boston University
Knox College Department of Japanese
UC Berkeley Japanese Program
University of Cambridge Language Centre
University of Gent
Helsinki University of Technology
University of Oslo
University of Sherbrooke
Duke University
Southern Illinois University
Bowling Green State University
Hiroshima University
Edith Cowan University
Cardiff University Japanese Studies Centre
University College London
Nanyang Technical University
USAT
University of Wellington
The University of Calgary
Global Campus Net, Osaka
W.M. Keck Interactive Learning Center
J-OS.com (Offering webcam-based online instruction in Japanese)
AOTS Japanese Language Training Center
Yoshida Institute
Search Engines/Web Communities
 Stumbleupon.com is a web surfing community where members share their favorite sites with others of similar interests.
iKjeld.com Japan Links, with 1400+ Japan and translation links in a search engine format.
Net Friends
Xavier Olive Masashi Nakanishi Sherab Chen Ana Saiz García
Tools
Two useful and FREE tools for your web site. StatCounter web tracker; FreeFind site search.
Miscellaneous
For ancient history buffs, Steve Trussel's EclectiCity has a Nihongo: Japanese Language page with links to 1997-2002 Japan Times articles on Japanese prehistory.
A list of resources highly regarded by anime fans is www.koyagi.com, from Gilles Poitras.
Correspondance-fr.org is a free registry for those seeking language-exchange penpals. The site also has penpal and travel-related articles, as well as a half-dozen forums.
A To Z Writing has links to sites and articles on all kinds of writing topics, including sections for Chinese, Japanese, Arabic and Egyptian writing systems.
POETRYMAGIC.CO.UK is a resource center for the theory and craft of writing poetry, offering an introduction to poetry for students, amateurs and poetry lovers.
National Association of Japan-America Societies
Directory to the World of Symbolism has the subject well covered, with categories such as Celtic, dreams, heraldry, Native American, sacred geometry and many more.
Last Update: 22 April 2008
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Etymological Keypoints
This column of keypoints appears on each page of this online etymological dictionary of kanji, Chinese characters as used in Japan. For detailed information on any of the following topics, click the MORE hyperlinks to reach the appropriate sections of the Reference Page.
Types of Characters
Chinese characters are of three types: pictographs, ideographs and compound characters.
Pictographs
Pictographs are representations of concrete objects: moon, sun, river, mountain, bird, sword, mouth, hand and so on. Pictographs also account for nearly all of the radicals (or classifiers) as described below in the Compound Characters section. There are several hundred pictographs in all. MORE
Ideographs
The handful of ideographs among the Chinese characters convey abstract notions such as unity, concealment, extension etc. MORE
Compound Characters
Compound Characters are composed of two elements. The first element is a "radical" (or "classifier"). Character dictionaries assign nearly all characters to one of approximately 70 of these radicals.
The second element is a sound note, suggesting both the pronunciation and the meaning of the character. In a small number of compound characters the sound conveyed by the second element is anomalous, for which reason compound characters have traditionally been divided into phonetic compounds and semantic compounds.
MORE on Phonetic Compounds
MORE on Semantic Compounds
Phonetic elements (or sound notes) most often match that of the compound character precisely, such as 夬 KUAT and 決 KUAT. In other instances the initial or final consonants are altered: 甚 TAM and 勘 KAM; 胥 SAG and 婿 SAR. In a smaller number of cases the vowel is transposed: 而 NAG and 需 NUG. We also find phonetic elements functioning in other ways such as to convey onomatopoeic or mimetic sounds, to transliterate loan words and so on. There are eight types of sound notes in all. MORE
Word Formation In Proto-Chinese
This dictionary arranges Chinese characters according to word families of phonologically and semantically related terms. Building upon research undertaken by Bernhard Karlgren and Akiyasu Todo, the earliest sounds of the terms in proto-Chinese are reconstructed along the pattern Consonant-Vowel-Consonant. MORE
Initial consonants are K, L, M, N, P, S and T. The vowel in most terms is something between short A and E, here rendered as A. The vowel may also be O or U, and a number of word families feature the medial glide UA. Final consonants are G/K, NG, M, N, P, R and T.
Semantic Function of Consonants
Each initial consonant suggests a broad semantic background for characters beginning with that consonant. Here are the semantic indicators for each initial consonant, followed by a partial selection of the kinds of terms found in each initial consonant network.
Initial K- = Frame: boxes and containers; foundations of buildings; cavities; enclosed passageways; shackles/handcuffs; square tools; crossroads; humans, gates and other objects framing each other by standing in opposition; nuts in shells, grain in husks, beans/peas in a pod, shellfish in shells and other objects in containers; yokes; molds; footwear and garments that contain the body in full or part
Initial L- = Continuum: footpaths; literal and figurative belts; strips of material; stripes; dripping, flowing or trickling water/liquid; linked waves; patterned grain of wood; chains/cables; lengths of rope; interwoven vegetation; furrows; stretching vines
Initial M- = Conceal: the sun concealed (by darkness, cloud cover, vegetation); threads, insects, and heads of grain that are fine/tiny to the point of near-invisibility; persons concealed by passing away; fish nets or traps concealed beneath the surface of the water; physical/figurative blindness; concealing grass/vegetation; concealing curtains or pieces of cloth
Initial N- = Flexible: supple female bodies; supple body parts (ears, earlobes, droopy beard); vegetation/food softened/made supple by being heated; cloth/fabric softened in liquid; bodies wasted/softened by illness; swordblades and other flexible weapons; clinginess; seals created from softened clay; pliable hides; vines and other flexible objects that coil/twist about; gently bending arms and vegetation
Initial P- = Spread: goods spread for display/sale; food spread for a feast/meal; spreading leaves/vegetation; liquid/fragrance that spreads to right and left, or in all directions; liquid overflowing its container; hands spread to slap/strike, or to grip a handle; spreading wounds; spreading tiles; lightning spreading through the sky; waterplants spreading over the surface of water; sails and other types of spreading cloth; seeds spread through fields; pelts/fabric wrapped about the body; wings wrapped around a bird's body; sea creatures enveloped in shells; objects such as fabric or soft boards that spread in being folded back upon themselves
Initial S- = Small/Thin/Slender: piles of vegetation, plant matter, grain, food etc; piled rocks; piled earth; pile of wood shavings; objects that are cut/aligned irregularly; long or tall, slender objects such as masts, reeds, wells or fences; hairpins, phalluses, trails of liquid and other slender objects that penetrate tight spaces; fragments of metal, wood or bone; moss, coral, baby teeth and other small, tightly adhering objects; arrangements of small/fine objects such as thorns on a plant, birds in trees or sand on a beach; sheaves, wheel spokes converging in hubs, arrows compacted in a quiver and other tightly compressed objects
Initial T- = Straight: literal piles of objects such as firewood, meat, valuables or metal; figurative piles; lizards, snakes, wriggling insects and other straight creatures; the shuttle of a loom, a horizontal bar on a vehicle and other machines/machine parts that move in a straight line; straight movement in both vertical and horizontal directions; pipes, tubes, caverns and other straight, tubular objects; flames, gas, the sun and other rising objects
(Initial S terms represent a branch of the initial T group, emphasizing small/thin/slender applications of the idea of straightness.) MORE
Among the final consonants, the G/K ending suggests that the meaning of the character is directly connected with the main idea expressed by the initial consonant (see above). KAG/LAG/MAG/NAG/PAG/SAG/TAG and their final K variants KAK/LAK/MAK/NAK/PAK/SAK/TAK may be considered linguistic templates which the other finals modify to create more specific meanings for the relevant terms. Each of the remaining final consonants suggests a specific semantic nuance for the characters ending with that consonant. Here are the semantic indicators for each final consonant, followed by a partial selection of the kinds of terms found in each final consonant group.
Final -NG = Extend: bodies that stretch and/or go stiff; persons or objects standing in distant opposition; sound/fragrance drifting from one point to another, linking the two points in distant opposition; actions or processes that continue a long time, such as savoring food in the mouth, protracted spasms, lengthy songs or dramatic performances; endlessly flowing water; vegetation spreading out of sight; long strings of shells/jewels; writing/ornamentation spread at length over a surface; tall piles or long trails of objects; steam, vapor or gas that rises high in the air
Final -M = Encompass: people fallen into holes; food or other objects contained in the mouth; fruit encompassed by skin; grain encompassed by husks; objects covered by thick vegetation or by darkness; drenched objects; a fetus encompassed in a womb; needles, hairpins and other slender objects concealed in filling narrow spaces; cavities and containers filled with liquid
Final -N = Adhere/Be proximate: weapons contacting an enemy's body; contact of body parts with other objects; hunting/fishing implements contacting their targets; tightly knit groups of people, birds, fish and other creatures; tight rows of like objects; cloth tightly wrapped about (parts of) the body; roofs fit upon buildings; paired objects in close proximity; points of contact between land and water; proximate pieces of finely cut/chopped objects such as vegetation and food; objects lying flat on the ground
Final -P = Press: be pressed upon by attackers; objects sandwiched between others; objects exerting pressure downward, or directly upon the ground; tight compaction of like objects such as threads, insects or vegetation; human bodies pressing upon bedding or upon other human bodies
Final -R = Continuum: elongated objects such as garments or weapons; prolonged activity such as speech, prayer, singing, rituals, irrigation, erosion, carving, scraping, polishing or sharpening of knives; prolonged sensations such as reverberations, irritation or illness; continuous states or relationships such as human friendship, reverence of ancestors or the lasting effect of glue-like substances; neat lines of people or of objects such as eaves, fruit or footprints; abstract elongation such as in the slow passage of time
Final -T = Cut/Divide/Reduce: reduction in size by cutting of vegetation, carving of wood, or biting/chewing of food; division of objects such as in the splitting of logs or the ripping of cloth; reduction of empty space in objects such as rooms and containers, or in the covering of open space by vegetation or water; reduction in length such as in knotting a rope; reduction of darkness by the application of light; reduction of physical capacities on account of fatigue, illness, blindness or numbness; reduction of physical capacities of animals by trapping, tethering or penning them; reduction of emotional capacities on account of anger, distress or excitement MORE
Semantic Function of the O and U Vowels
The vowel O suggests the idea of curvature, sometimes extending to "curve and surround/envelop."The U vowel, when it is the lone vowel in a term (examples: KUG, LUG, SUG, TUNG) refers to a circle (whether full or nearly full) or to a bulky/lumpy mass. However, when the U vowel is employed as part of the diphthong UA (examples: KUAN/KUAR/KUAT, SUAN/SUAR/SUAT), the signification is most often the O vowel sense of curving/round.
Here are the semantic indicators for these vowels, followed by a partial selection of representative terms.
Vowel O = Curvature: backs bent with illness or age; tree branches or the necks of humans/animals bent with weight; contorted bodies; trees bent with decay; arched bridges; curved stretches of land or other natural phenomena such as caverns; winding constructions such as palaces and official buildings; birds or the sun curving into sight over the horizon; coiling vegetation, snakes or threads; curved movement such as in kneading or bending objects into shape, sweeping with a broom, or rowing a boat; bulging objects such as water jugs, gourds, pimples or pregnant bellies; curved objects such as eggs, nuts or colanders; objects with curved portions such as a swordblade, the hull of a boat, or a flag attached to a pole and flapping in the breeze; arcs formed by liquid poured from a container, or by humans/animals moving in a semi-circle
Vowel U = Circle/Mass: round objects such as baskets, huts or circular buildings; lumpy objects such as heads, hunched bodies, breasts; skin protuberances or tree stumps; massive objects such as pillars, ridgepoles, downed boars or heavy bells; crowds of people or swarms of insects/creatures; curved objects such as earthenware, roofs or animal horns; round cavities filled with fluid or occupied by bodies; circuitous trails, winding hills and other curved landscape features; masses of hair such as in topknots or shaggy dog fur; masses of grain/vegetation; heaps of food; tightly-massed inanimate objects such as ships in a harbor, spokes in a hub or precious stones in an accessory; objects compacted by hand or tightly grasped in the fist
Vowel UA = Curving/Round: melons; wings; hoops; baskets; round and tubular containers; pools of water; objects enclosed in the hands; crowns; arcs or halos of light; circular piles of vegetation; round fruit; barrels; revolving objects and other forms of rotating/circular movement; rounded mountain tops or hill peaks; round bundles of goods or of vegetation; curling of the fingertips or cupping of the hands; strips of cloth wrapped about and covering the eyes; bound objects such as scrolls and tablets; round fish eggs; blossoming buds; cylindrical tubes, skewers or blocks; puckering of the lips; persons or objects arranged in a circle; squatting figures; winding waterways or passages; round holes and tools for drilling round holes MORE
Sample Terms
Semantically related terms are by no means restricted to a single consonant network. Five kanji concerned with the humble pea or bean and their seed vessels (the pod) suggest why and how this is.
The KAP word family (Frame + Press) contains the character 莢, meaning "pod." Here, the twin sides of the seed vessel are visualized as framing elements that press against the peas or beans contained within.
In the KUAN word family (Frame + [Curving/Round] + Adhere/Be Proximate) we find 豌 ("pea"), referring to the round legumes contained in and adhering to the framing element, the pod.
The NAM word family (Flexible + Encompass/Conceal) has 荏 "beans," that is, beans covered and hidden by a flexible pod.
荅 "bean pod" belongs to the TAP word family (Straight + Press). Here, the emphasis is on the pod as a straight object the sides of which exert pressure upon the contents.
Finally, 荳 "bean" is a member of the TUG word family (Straight + Circle/Mass + Straight). In this case, the emphasis is on the round or lumpy shape of the bean contained in the straight object, the pod. MORE
Using the Dictionary
Hyperlinks to individual word families are located at the left side of this page. To look up individual characters, use the search box at top right or one of the four indices at the located at the top center of the page.
For ease of reference, characters presented within an etymology are hyperlinked to their full etymological explanation.
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Site Contents Copyright (C) 2004-2008 Lawrence J. Howell
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