It can be frustrating to feel that a kanji is familiar but not to know why. You may have experienced that with the characters in 周到綿密 (shūtōmenmitsu: extremely complete (thorough, careful) and detailed, to go round + to reach the limit of + cotton + detailed). If so, perhaps it will help if I list common words containing each character:
周 (SHŪ, mawa(ri): periphery, circuit, circle)
周り (mawari: periphery, surroundings, circumference)
周りの人 (mawari no hito: people around me)
periphery + people
周辺 (shūhen: environs, outskirts, circumference)
circumference + vicinity
半周 (hanshū: semicircle) half + circleMakes sense, as 周 looks terribly circular!
到 (TŌ, ita(ru): to arrive)
到着 (tōchaku: arrival) to arrive + to arrive at
到来 (tōrai: arrival, advent) to arrive + to come
到達 (tōtatsu: arrival) to arrive + to arrive
到底 (tōtei: absolutely) to reach the limit of + bottom
綿 (MEN, wata: cotton)
I had never seen any compounds with 綿, but here are a few good ones:
綿羊 (men’yō: sheep) cotton + sheep
As if a sheep didn’t seem woolly enough already, someone threw in the idea of cotton!
木綿 (momen: cotton, cotton cloth) tree + cotton
A cotton tree?!
綿花 (menka: raw cotton, cotton wool) cotton + grass
Now, this one, I would expect to mean “cotton plant.” But no!
With the kun-yomi of wata, rather than the on-yomi of MEN, 綿 appears in these words:
綿の実 (wata no mi: cottonseed) cotton plant + seed
I simply had to include this (even though it’s uncommon), as it incorporates 実, which we’ve just examined at length.
綿菓子 (watagashi: cotton candy)
cotton + candy (last 2 chars.)Let’s look at the “candy” compound 菓子. By itself, 菓 means “candy.” And 子 often means “child.” But in this case it means “various articles and fixtures, especially furniture,” according to Halpern. Appetizing! Speaking of unappetizing things, how can anyone eat 綿菓子 after referring to it as “candy floss,” as Brits and people in British colonies do. Oh, but Wikipedia tells me that it’s “fairy floss” in Australia and “old woman’s hair” in Greece! Yum!
