Friday, June 9, 2017

Cracked turtle shells, and righteous feet

Cracked turtle shells

兆 "omen."  Henshall says it's cracked turtle shells, used for divination as I recall.

I can't get much memorable out of cracked turtle shells, but I can get something out of "fate," which I suppose is what divination tells you.

挑 "challenge."  Facing a challenge is taking your fate 兆 in hand 扌.

逃 "escape."  Get going 辶 to escape your fate 兆.

眺 "stare"; "give the evil eye."  Turn your eye 目 to something fateful 兆 and you won't look away soon.

桃 "peach."  OK, for this one I went with the turtle shells.  The peach tree 木 gives you a fruit the stone of which can be cracked (and the flesh if it's unripe enough).

I looked up 兆 on Wiktionary and got all the derived characters, skipping those not in common Japanese usage.

Righteous feet

疋, listed in Wiktionary as a variant of, among other things, 正.  But if I have to remember to draw it differently I want it to be different in meaning, at least in my mind.  正 is "righteous" and both are derived from "foot," so I'll call it "the righteous foot" or "best foot forward."

疑, "doubt."   When you're shot with an arrow 矢 while sitting 匕, you got in motion 龴 and put your best foot forward 疋 ... you'll doubt you're going to make it.

凝, "congeal" or "freeze."  That man who got shot and doubts he's going to make it may feel frozen 冫or unable to move. (冫means "ice.")

擬, "pseudo-" or "imitation."  It's something made with hands 扌, but you doubt 疑 it's real -- it's an imitation.

従, "obey."  Wiktionary says 䒑 at the top is grass (another variant!), but... lawzy, this is getting complicated.  彳means we're at a crossroads, same place where we saw the rules 律 (which is crossroads plus a hand with a brush writing those rules where you can see them).  When you see the rules, get your smarts on (the lines at the top) and put your righteous foot forward -- it's cool to obey the rules.

Boy, that last one was stretch.

I am uncertain if there are more that use 疋.  Wiktionary couldn't find those derived characters by link from 疋, so I had to search.

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