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Last week we looked at ways in which 実 and body parts combine in compounds. My investigation of one such word took me in an entirely unexpected direction, and as I went farther and farther down that path, I decided to present my findings as a separate blog. So this week we’ll detour from the 実 examination (an examination of the facts!) to take a look at melons. (Seems appropriate to jump out of sequence on Leap Day!)
Here’s the word that took me so far off track:
瓜実顔 (urizanegao: oval or classic face (e.g., of a beautiful woman)) melon + seed + face
This word combines the characters for facts (実) and face (顔, kao). One might assume that the compound had to do with absorbing facts through one’s face (or facing facts!). But things don’t quite work out that way.
In 瓜実顔, the yomi of 実 is zane, the voiced form of sane. As sane, 実 refers to the seed or pit inside fruit. The first kanji, 瓜, gives us “melon,” so we’re definitely on the right path in ascribing a fruity definition to this 実.
But then what do we have? A face shaped like a melon seed is the classic oval face of a beautiful woman?! Yes, a melon seed has a pleasing oval shape, but what woman really wants to be called a melon head? Does nature offer no better source of comparison?
Well, maybe I’ve imagined the wrong sort of melon (if that’s possible)…. No, I’ve just looked in Breen, and 瓜 (KA, uri) appears in the following compound:
西瓜 (suika: watermelon) west + melon
West melon? Is this like West Orange in New Jersey, only in Japan? Seems that this SUI should have been 水 (SUI, mizu: water). Indeed, that’s a second possible way of writing this word. Halpern tells us that the SUI in 西瓜 is a “special reading,” which is to say ateji. But I still want to know why 水瓜 (water + melon) isn’t the primary way of writing “watermelon”!
Wikipedia to the rescue! The Wiki-article presents these useful facts:
• “By the 10th century AD, watermelons were being cultivated in China, which is today the world’s single largest watermelon producer.”
• “In Vietnam, legend holds that watermelon was discovered in Vietnam long before it reached China…. When the Chinese took over Vietnam in about 110 BC, they called the melons ‘dura hảo‘ (good melon) …”
• “According to legend, watermelon was discovered by Prince Mai An Tiêm, an adopted son of the 11th Hùng King. When he was exiled unjustly to an island, he was told that if he could survive for six months, he would be allowed to return. When he prayed for guidance, a bird flew past and dropped a seed. He cultivated the seed and called its fruit ‘dura tây’ or western melon, because the birds who ate it flew from the west.”
The west! We don’t know exactly where “the west” was, but it was obviously west of some point in Vietnam!
Here’s another compound in which 瓜 clearly means “melon”:
南瓜 (kabocha: pumpkin, squash) south + melon
Oh my goodness. More ateji, as well as a fascinating pattern; whereas suika is the melon of the west, kabocha is the melon of the south. Kabocha came to China (and Japan) from Cambodia in the south! That’s where the term kabocha comes from—it’s a variation on カンボジア: “Cambodia”!
Is there a melon of the north or east? And is it a good melon or a wicked melon?
Breen offers still more words made from melons:
胡瓜 (kyūri: cucumber) foreign, barbarian + melon
黄瓜 (kyūri: cucumber) yellow + melon
It’s hard to keep track of all the strangeness here. Neither 胡 nor 黄 should have the yomi of KYŪ, and 瓜 is never RI. But 黄 is ki, and 瓜 is uri, so kiuri can easily morph into kyūri.
I’m not accustomed to seeing cucumbers as barbarians! But 胡 refers to a northeastern region in China. At some point, people in the main part of China viewed those northeasterners as barbaric. The same shame must have fallen upon their cucumbers (though I don’t know anything for sure about cucumber production in this region of ancient China).
The yellow + melon breakdown also took me by surprise. But cucumber experts shed light on the matter at the next link.
On the Yellow + Melon Breakdown …
Finally, we come to this puzzler:
破瓜 (haka: (1) age 16 (girl); (2) age 64 (man); (3) puberty;
(4) deflowering) to rip + melon
I imagine that this is related to our talk of cherries in English. But age 64 for a man???
Well, it’s time for two Verbal Logic Quizzes. Be sure to use your melon!
