暑 Hot
Hot is Sun and Person, acting phonetically to express burn.
夏 Summer
How this came to mean summer isn’t clear. Presumably summer was associated with a particular dance or festival. Remember as the shape of crossed legs.
温 Warm
Some scholars take warm to refer to an act of kindness in giving a prisoner a bowl of water. Suggest remembering as “Sun warms water in a bowl”.
醜 Ugly
April 20, 2009 by admin
Filed under All, Higher Grades
The devil and a wine jar form the kanji for ugly. It also has meanings of unclean and shame.
刈 Reap
April 20, 2009 by admin
Filed under All, Higher Grades
The X comes from a pictograph of shears while the knife element was added to bring home the idea of reap. What surprises me about this entry is that it’s number 1092 in the Jōyō list taught in Japanese schools. It’s a higher level kanji meaning it’s part of the higher grade levels beyond 6th grade. My point is that it’s an easy-to-remember kanji. It has few strokes, a simple meaning, and easy mnemonic.
白 White
White is a sun with a ray of light. That’s how I see it. Some etymologies say it’s a mark pointing to the tip of a white fingernail.
買 Buy
The bottom element started out as a picture of a shell but as an element means money. The top was once a pictograph of a net, which makes me think of having a net worth to buy stuff.
What’s interesting phonetically, is that it’s on-yomi reading ‘BAI’ バイ matches the English pronunciation, ‘buy’.
Kanji Mnemonic 193
米 Rice & America
* The kanji for rice lends its old phonetic reading of to mean America. It’s interesting to learn the kanji used to signify countries. I’ll create a post on this soon.
生 Life
力 Power
Power comes from a pictograph of an arm with bulging biceps. The kanji is used as an element in the kanji for male, 男.