明 | míng

In Mandarin Chinese, 明 (Pinyin: míng 🔊) is a word of many meanings. As an adjective, it stands for “bright”, “brilliant”, “light”, “clear”, “transparent”, “apparent”, “open”, “acute”, “sharp”, “keen”, “intelligent”, “perceptive” and, less obviously, “next” or “following”. As a noun, it can mean “vision”, “sight” or “light”, as well as “tomorrow”. As a verb, it can mean “to understand”, “to know”, “to make known” or “to show”. As you can clearly see, these many senses are related and linked to the concept of light. Also, 明 may refer to the Ming dynasty, 明朝 (1368—1644), also referred to as “Great Ming”, 大明 (Dàmíng).

Does the character 明 look familiar to you? Of course it does: it’s a combination of our old friends 日 “sun” and 月 “moon”. According to Wiktionary, 明 could be interpreted as “the sun just rising and the moon not yet set — dawn” or, alternatively, as “two bright celestial bodies — bright”. Lawrence J. Howell writes in his Etymological Dictionary of Han/Chinese Characters:

Originally, 月 moon + 向 (ventilation hole) → bright moonlight streaming through an open window, and manifesting the hidden → brightness; light. Extended meanings from the idea of the light of dawn (signaling the end of one day and the start of the next) include spend/pass (the night); be visible; the next/following (day/week/year); begin; end; and dawn. Disclose and confide are extended senses of “open” (open up to), as are clarity; evident and obvious. Be conversant with is via the idea of illumination, here with respect to a particular subject matter.

Elsewhere, Howell consistently refers to 明 as “manifest the hidden”.

Compounds of 明 include

• 明 + 明 = 明明 (míngmíng 🔊): obviously, plainly, clearly
• 明 + 白 = 明白 (míngbai, míngbái): clear, obvious, evident; open, explicit, frank; sensible, reasonable
• 明 + 人 = 明人 (míngrén): honest and upright person
• 明 + 天 = 明天 (míngtiān 🔊): tomorrow; near future
• 天 + 明 = 天明 (tiānmíng): to break (of dawn)
• 明 + 星 = 明星 (míngxīng 🔊): celebrity, star
• 明 + 日 = 明日 (míngrì): tomorrow; (literary, figurative) future
• 明 + 月 = 明月 (míngyuè): bright moon; next month
• 月 + 明 = 月明 (yuèmíng): moonlight

It’s haiku time!

木をつみて 夜の明やすき 小窓かな 子規 ki o tsumite yo no akeyasuki komado kana the tree cut, dawn breaks early at my little window Shiki (Translated by Janine Beichman)

窓明て 蝶を見送る 野原哉 一茶 mado akete chō wo mi-okuru no hara kana opening the window I see the butterfly off... into the field Issa (Translated by David G. Lanoue)

More photos related to bright stuff, hanzi and calligraphy @ Shutterstock.

乐 | yuè | lè

In Mandarin Chinese, 乐 is a character for two different words:

1. 乐 (Pinyin: yuè 🔊): n. music, tune, melody, song
2. 乐 (Pinyin: lè 🔊): adj. joyful, happy, glad, enjoyable, fun; n. happiness, joy, pleasure; v. to laugh, to smile, to enjoy, to love

乐 is a simplified form of the traditional character 樂. According to Wiktionary, 樂 is an

Ideogrammic compound: 糸 (“string”) + 木 (“wood”) — strings on a piece of wood, i.e. a wooden musical instrument. The oracle bone form shows two strings connected to the wood. In the bronze inscriptions, a 白 component was added in between the two strings, which may either represent the thumb (fiddling) or a phonetic part.

Lawrence J. Howell in his Etymological Dictionary of Han/Chinese Characters gives a different explanation:

A depiction of an oak tree with acorns (ground into powder via a lengthy grinding process). Music and enjoyment are onomatopoeic, borrowed meanings, the pronunciation of the character simulating the din of a crowd → play (an instrument); amuse oneself; pleasant; fun; happy; delightful; comfort; easy.

Compounds of 乐 (1) include

• 乐 + 队 “team” = 乐队 (yuèduì): music band
• 国 + 乐 = 国乐 (guóyuè): national music
• 俗 “common” + 乐 = 俗乐 (súyuè): folk music
• 西 + 乐 = 西乐 (xīyuè): Western music

And those of 乐 (2):

• 乐 + 土 = 乐土 (lètǔ): land of happiness; paradise
• 乐 + 子 = 乐子 (lèzi): a little fun; a good time
• 快 + 乐 = 快乐 (kuàilè 🔊): happy; joyful; cheerful

One of the meaning of 快 is “happy”, so 快乐 is like “happy happy”. In its turn, 快乐 is a part of many “happy” wishes such as

• 生 + 日 + 快乐 = 生日快乐 (shēngrì kuàilè 🔊): Happy Birthday!
• 新 + 年 + 快乐 = 新年快乐 (xīnnián kuàilè): Happy New Year!
• 春 + 节 + 快乐 = 春节快乐 (chūnjié kuàilè): Happy Spring Festival, Happy Chinese New Year

In Japanese, a simplified (shinjitai) form of 樂 is used, viz. 楽. Similar to Chinese, 楽 corresponds to two different words:

1. がく (gaku): n. music
2. らく (raku): adj. comfortable, easy, simple; n. comfort, ease, enjoyment, simplicity

楽書の 壁をあはれむ 今朝の雪 蕪村 Rakugaki no kabe wo awaremu kesa no yuki The scribbling on the wall, — It looks pitiful, This morn of snow. Buson (Translated by R.H. Blyth)

Here, 楽書, literally “writing for fun”, is an alternative way to spell 落書き / らくがき (rakugaki 🔊), “doodle”, “graffiti”, “scrawl”, “scribble”, etc.

More photos related to music, happiness, hanzi and calligraphy @ Shutterstock.

新 | xīn

In Mandarin Chinese, 新 (Pinyin: xīn 🔊) is an adjective that means “new”, “fresh”, “recent”, etc., or a corresponding adverb. It was also the name of short-lived Xin dynasty, 新朝 (Xīncháo).

According to Wiktionary, 新 is a phono-semantic compound of phonetic 亲 “hazelnut tree” and semantic 斤 “axe”:

to cut down a tree with an axe (hence starting something new).

Lawrence J. Howell in his Etymological Dictionary of Han/Chinese Characters gives a different explanation:

The left-hand element is an abbreviated form of one combining 辛 needle/cutting tool and 木 tree/wood → thornbush (the sharp, needle-like thorns in close proximity). 新 adds 斤 ax → create firewood by chopping a thornbush/tree with a sharp ax. New is an extended meaning (← freshly hewn tree/wood) → recently/lately.

Many compound words of 新 include

• 新 + 月 = 新月 (xīnyuè): new moon
• 新 + 年 = 新年 (xīnnián 🔊): New Year
• 新 + 生 = 新生 (xīnshēng): newborn; recent; to be born again; to be reborn
• 新 + 人 = 新人 (xīnrén): newly married (couple, wife, husband); new lover; new personality; new talent; newcomer; new person; someone who is making a fresh start; Homo sapiens sapiens
• 新 + 娘 = 新娘 (xīnniáng 🔊): bride
• 新 + 郎 = 新郎 (xīnláng 🔊): bridegroom
• 新 + 星 = 新星 (xīnxīng): (astronomy) nova; (figuratively) rising star
• 超 + 新星 = 超新星 (chāoxīnxīng): (astronomy) supernova
• 新 + 戊烷 “pentane” = 新戊烷 (xīnwùwán): (chemistry) neopentane
• 新 + 田 = 新田 (xīntián): new field; new farmland
• 新 + 茶 = 新茶 (xīnchá): new tea of the year

More photos related to new stuff, hanzi and calligraphy @ Shutterstock.

蛛 | zhū

In Mandarin Chinese, 蛛 (Pinyin: zhū 🔊) means “spider”. According to Wiktionary, 蛛 is a phono-semantic compound of semantic 虫 (“insect”) and phonetic 朱 (zhū), while Lawrence J. Howell writes in his Etymological Dictionary of Han/Chinese Characters that “the conceptual influence lent here by 朱 is uncertain”.

There are not too many compounds of 蛛. One of them is 蜘蛛 (zhīzhū 🔊) which is another word for spider. In Chinese, the 蜘 part is not used on its own; in Japanese, Korean and Vietnamese 蜘 also means “spider”. So does the reduplicated form, 蛛蛛 (zhūzhu). A compound of 蛛 with 网 “net”, 蛛网 (zhūwǎng), means “spider web”.

In Japanese, 蜘蛛 is pronounced kumo (🔊).

蜘蛛何と 音を何と鳴く 秋の風 芭蕉 Kumo nan to oto wo nan to naku aki no kaze With what voice, And what song would you sing, spider, In this autumn breeze? Bashō (Translated by R.H. Blyth)

More photos related to spiders, calligraphy and sea glass @ Shutterstock.

ⵣ | yaz

ⵣ, aka yaz or aza, is the thirty-second (and penultimate) letter of the basic Neo-Tifinagh alphabet. It represents the sound /z/. One theory traces the origin of ⵣ to the ancient Phoenician letter 𐤆 (zayin).

ⵣ is also used as a symbol of Amazigh (ⴰⵎⴰⵣⵉⵖ) identity and, most famously, appears on Berber flag. (Which, incidentally, looks very much like my alternative flag of Fuerteventura A). Sometimes ⵣ is interpreted as symbolising “free man”.

Rotate it 90° and you’ll get ♓, the symbol of Pisces. Some historical forms of Chinese character 木 “tree” and Cyrillic letter Ж look very much like ⵣ. Coincidence? I think yaz.

And what about Guanches, you may ask. ⵣ is another of Canarian souvenir-shop staples, together with “Guanche sun” and spiral. The inscription on the famous Zanata Stone unearthed in 1992 and dated to between the 5^th century BC and the 7^th century AD, contains three Tifinagh characters including ⵣ. However, according to Renata Springer Bunk and Irma Mora Aguiar, the experts in Libyco-Berber scripts from Universidad de La Laguna, this inscription is almost certainly a fake. ⵣ is a fairly recent innovation, dating from the last two centuries, and is a feature of Tuareg alphabets. This letter is not found among the (much older) Canarian alphabets, such as listed in Libyco-Berber Inscriptions Database (El Hierro, Fuerteventura, Gran Canaria, Lanzarote). Moreover, a part of ⵣ character of Zanata Stone appears to be made with a metal tool, something that Canarian aborigines did not have. Why this bogus Guanche character has got to symbolise indigenous Canarian culture is anyone’s guess.

More photos related to Guanches, letters and sea glass @ Shutterstock.

想 | xiǎng

In Mandarin Chinese, 想 (Pinyin: xiǎng 🔊) stands for “to think”, “to guess”, “to miss”, “to want”, “to wish for”, “would like”, etc. Thus 我想你 or 我想妳 (wǒ xiǎng nǐ) may mean “I miss you” or “I think about you”, just as is the case with 思. However, there are some subtle differences between the two. For instance, one would use 我想你 (rather than 我思你) to say “I miss you” to a person one is romantically attracted to, perhaps in a hope to hear 我也想你, “I miss you too”.

According to Wiktionary, 想 is a phono-semantic compound of semantic 心, “heart/mind”, and phonetic 相 (xiāng 🔊) which, in its turn, is an ideogrammic compound of our old friend 木 “tree” and 目 “eye”. So 相 — literally “watching the tree”— is translated as “to see for oneself” or “evaluate”; it also could be used as an adverb meaning “mutually”, “reciprocally”, “towards each other”, “one another”, “together” and suchlike. I, or the folk etymologist in me, would like to think (can I say 我想思?) that 相 brings not just phonetics but also this implicit reciprocity into 想. On the other hand, 思 is more “cerebral” kind of thinking — remember the “fontanel” hypothesis?

The historical forms of 想 show some variation in relative placement of its three components. In contrast to 思, which reminds me of a Viking longship, 想 looks like an oared two-masted sailing vessel, maybe a lancaran.

Sure enough, 思 and 想 can be combined in one word, 思想 (sīxiǎng 🔊), “thought” or “idea”. Other compounds of 想 include

不 + 想 = 不想 (bùxiǎng): to not want 回 + 想 = 回想 (huíxiǎng): to recall, to remember 冥 “deep” + 想 = 冥想 (míngxiǎng): meditation, to meditate 想 + 像 = 想像 (xiǎngxiàng): to imagine, to picture 中 + 心 + 思想 = 中心思想 (zhōngxīn sīxiǎng): central idea

More photos related to thought, hanzi and calligraphy @ Shutterstock.

蝶 | dié

In Mandarin Chinese, 蝶 (Pinyin: dié 🔊 or tiě 🔊) is a word for butterfly.

According to Wiktionary, 蝶 is a phono-semantic compound of semantic 虫 (“insect”) and phonetic 枼 which, in turn, is a compound of 世 and 木. The folk etymologist in me wants to see an insect (i.e. butterfly) flying toward a flower or something, but it seems that the 枼 part is indeed purely phonetic: too many words with completely different meanings that include the radical 枼 are pronounced dié, for example 惵, 喋, 堞, 楪, 揲... On the other hand, Lawrence J. Howell in his Etymological Dictionary of Han/Chinese Characters adds a bit more semantics:

枼 is a depiction of three leaves growing from the top of a tree, suggesting slight objects (thin, flat leaves) piled on each other.

And so,

枼 <...> (thin/flat/slight) + 虫 insect → (thin-winged) butterfly.

There are not too many compounds of 蝶. One of them is 蝴蝶 (húdié 🔊) which is another word for butterfly; the 蝴 part is not used on its own.

In Japanese, 蝶 is pronounced chō (🔊). 蝶々さん, Chōchō-san, better known in the West as Cio-Cio-san, is the name of the protagonist of Puccini’s Madama Butterfly, where suffix san is a honorific and 蝶蝶, or 蝶々, chōchō, is just a reduplication of 蝶. It still means “butterfly”.

This beautiful haiku by Issa starts and ends with 蝶:

蝶が來て つれて行きけり 庭の蝶 一茶 Chō ga kite tsurete yuki keri niwa no chō A butterfly came, And flew off With a butterfly in the garden. Issa (Translated by R.H. Blyth)

More photos related to butterflies and calligraphy @ Shutterstock.

鸟 | niǎo

In Mandarin Chinese, 鸟 (Pinyin: niǎo 🔊) is a noun for “bird”. You may remember seeing this character as a part of 鸡, “chicken”.

Wiktionary says that this word was

originally pronounced with a /t-/ initial <...> In many dialects, it changed to a /n-/ initial to avoid homophony with the vulgar word 屌 (diǎo, “penis”), which may ultimately have developed from the sense “bird”. Birds/fowl are characteristically associated with Chinese slangs for genitalia...

鸟 is a simplified form of the traditional character 鳥 which, according to Lawrence J. Howell’s Etymological Dictionary of Han/Chinese Characters, “is a depiction of a bird with a long, curved and rising tail”. Historical forms of this character show great diversity, depicting birds in a variety of positions and orientations, but most of them look to the left.

Compounds of 鸟 include

• 水 + 鸟 = 水鸟 (shuǐniǎo): waterfowl
• 白 + 鸟 = 白鸟 (báiniǎo): swan
• 小 + 鸟 = 小鸟 (xiǎoniǎo): small bird; chick
• 蜂 “bee” + 鸟 = 蜂鸟 (fēngniǎo): hummingbird
• 啄 “peck” + 木 + 鸟 = 啄木鸟 (zhuómùniǎo): woodpecker

In Japanese, 鳥 is pronounced tori (🔊). Naturally, birds inhabit many a haiku.

鳥一羽 道づれにして 枯野かな 千那 Tori ichiwa michizure ni shite kareno kana A solitary bird For my companion Upon the withered moor. Senna

水鳥ゃ かたちに影の 腹合せ 眞原 Mizutori ya katachi ni kage no haraawase The breast Of the water-fowl Meets its reflection. Mahara

小鳥來る 音うれしさよ 板びさし 蕪村 Kotori kuru oto ureshisa yo itabisashi The sounds of small birds On the pent-roof, — What a pleasure! Buson (All haiku translated by R.H. Blyth)

More photos related to birds and sea glass @ Shutterstock.

工 | gōng

In Mandarin Chinese, 工 (Pinyin: gōng 🔊) has a variety of meanings related to work. Apart from “work” itself, it could stand for “worker”, “working class”, “working day”, “industry”, “skill” or “project”.

According to Wiktionary, 工 is a pictogram of “a bladed tool”. What tool? Many historical forms of this character remind me of a spade or a shovel. Or maybe of an axe head — cf. 王 (which is like 工 with an extra stroke) and discussion therein. On the other hand, Lawrence J. Howell writes in his Etymological Dictionary of Han/Chinese Characters that 工 is

A depiction of a long hollow tube used as a tool both to pierce and to connect → work; construct (← work/construct using connecting pipes/tubes) → artisan; specialist; skillful.

Many compounds of 工 include

• 工 + 人 = 工人 (gōngrén 🔊): worker, labourer
• 人 + 工 = 人工 (réngōng 🔊): man-made, artificial
• 木 + 工 = 木工 (mùgōng): woodwork, carpentry; woodworker, carpenter
• 小 + 工 = 小工 (xiǎogōng): unskilled worker
• 大 + 工 = 大工 (dàgōng): (literary) skilled worker; carpenter
• 天 + 工 = 天工 (tiāngōng): (literary) work of nature

More photos related to beads, hanzi and calligraphy @ Shutterstock.

梅 | méi

In Mandarin Chinese, 梅 (Pinyin: méi 🔊) means “Chinese plum”. 梅 is a phono-semantic compound of phonetic 每 (měi 🔊) and semantic 木 (“tree”).

In Japanese, a simplified form of this character is used, 梅 (as 毎 is a simplified version of 每). The famous haiku by Buson goes:

梅遠近 南すべく 北すべく Ume ochikochi minami subeku kita subeku Plum-blossoms here and there, It is good to go north, Good to go south. (Translated by R.H. Blyth)

The compounds of 梅 include

• 梅 + 花 = 梅花 (méihuā): plum blossom
• 梅 + 子 = 梅子 (méizi): Asian plum (the fruit of Prunus mume)
• 梅 + 雨 = 梅雨 (méiyǔ): the East Asian rainy season (as plums ripen during the rainy season)
• 入 + 梅 = 入梅 (rùméi): beginning of the rainy season
• 松 + 竹 + 梅 = 松竹梅 (sōngzhúméi): the Three Friends of Winter, i.e. pine, bamboo and plum, the plants which do not wither in winter. In Japanese, 松竹梅 (shōchikubai) together are the three auspicious symbols of the Japanese New Year and also a three-rank system (where 松 is top, 竹 is middle and 梅 is bottom).

More photos related to plums, hanzi and calligraphy @ Shutterstock.

松 | sōng

In Mandarin Chinese, 松 (Pinyin: sōng) is a noun meaning “pine”. 松 is a phono-semantic compound of semantic 木 (“wood”) and phonetic 公 (gōng).

Lawrence J. Howell explains in his Etymological Dictionary of Han/Chinese Characters that 松 is a

公 open + 木 tree/wood → pine tree (species with “open” fronds).

Some compounds of 松 include

• 松 + 木 = 松木 (sōngmù): pine wood
• 松 + 子 = 松子 (sōngzǐ): pine nut
• 松 + 花 = 松花 (sōnghuā): pine pollen
• 松 + 果 = 松果 (sōngguǒ): pine cone
• 松 + 针 = 松针 (sōngzhēn): pine needle
• 松 + 鼠 = 松鼠 (sōngshǔ): squirrel

A combination of 松 with 山 (mountain), 松山, is a common placename in China (Sōngshān), Japan (Matsuyama) and Korea (Songsan). In Japanese, there is a beautiful word 松風 (松 + 風), matsukaze, which means “wind blowing through pine trees” or “the sound of such winds”. Matsukaze is a famous Noh play by Kan’ami Kiyotsugu (1333—1384).

Incidentally, the symbol above were created using Canarian pine 松针.

More photos related to pines @ Shutterstock.

杏 | xìng

In Mandarin Chinese, 杏 (Pinyin: xìng 🔊) means “apricot”. 杏 “is one of the 1000 most commonly used words” in the Collins Chinese Dictionary, although it does not explain why it’s so extremely common.

Lawrence J. Howell explains in his Etymological Dictionary of Han/Chinese Characters:

口 mouth + 木 tree/wood → apricot (← tree fruit savored in the mouth). Compare 梅, a closely related fruit thought to be beneficial for pregnant women on account of its voluminous production.

Some interesting compounds of 杏 include

• 杏 + 仁 “kernel” = 杏仁 (xìngrén): almond
• 杏 + 月 = 杏月 (Xìngyuè): the second month of the Chinese lunar calendar
• 杏 + 林 = 杏林 (xìnglín): literally, “apricot forest”; figuratively, “fine doctor” or “medical field”. According to Wiktionary, this meaning comes

  from the story of the famed physician Dong Feng [3^rd c. CE], who refused to accept payments from his patients, and instead asked patients successfully cured of ailments to plant apricot trees. A forest of apricot trees came to surround his home as a testament to his skill.

• 银 / 銀 “silver”, “money” + 杏 = 银杏 / 銀杏 (yínxìng): ginkgo (Ginkgo biloba)

More photos related to apricots, almonds, ginkgo, hanzi and calligraphy @ Shutterstock.

东 | dōng

In Mandarin Chinese, 东 (Pinyin: dōng 🔊) means “east”; also, “landlord”, “owner” or “host”.

Interesting expressions containing 东 include

• 东 + 风 = 东风 (dōngfēng): east winds (that blow in spring); figuratively, favourable situation, momentum or driving force
• 马 + 耳 + 东风 = 马耳东风 (mǎ ěr dōngfēng): not the least bit concerned. It comes from a poem by Li Bai:

  世人闻此皆掉头，
  有如东风射马耳。
  (Shìrén wén cǐ jiē diàotóu,
  yǒu rú dōngfēng shè mǎ ěr)
  “When the people of this world hear this, all shake their heads,
  As if the east wind shot through the horse’s ear.”

• 东 ... 西 ... : “east ... west ...” a common construction implying some sort of movement from side to side, for example:
  • 东一句西一句 (dōng yījù xī yījù): speak without any sense of coherence
  • 东倒西歪 (dōng dǎo xī wāi): walk unsteadily
  • 东逃西窜: (dōng táo xī cuàn): to scurry from place to place, especially when being chased
  • 东观西望: (dōng guān xī wàng): to look around in observation

东 is a simplified form of the traditional character 東. According to Wiktionary, 東

originally represented a bag tied at both ends (like a cellophane-wrapped candy with the ends twisted), and was later borrowed phonetically to mean “east”. This borrowing may have been influenced by reinterpreting the character as the sun (日) rising behind a tree (木), which is the traditional (though incorrect) etymology, as given in Shuowen.

Lawrence J. Howell writes in his Etymological Dictionary of Han/Chinese Characters:

A depiction of a sack bound on two ends, with a stick run through it. East is either a borrowed meaning or an extended one, in the sense of the direction of the rising sun (the rays of which figuratively pierce the earth) → (in historical usage) eastern Japan.

More photos related to east and sea glass @ Shutterstock.

禾 | hé

In Mandarin Chinese, 禾 (Pinyin: hé 🔊) is a noun that means “rice plant” or, more generally “grain” or “cereal”. As a radical, 禾 is found in many hanzi related to crops and farming.

According to Wiktionary, 禾 is a pictogram of a plant stalk. I’m sure you’ve noted the similarity with 木 “tree” and 米 “rice”.

More photos related to rice, cereals, grains and sea glass @ Shutterstock.