Quick Links Welcome to Kanji Curiosity | The Basics | Glossary I came across an intriguing word: 過渡 (kato: (1) crossing; ferry; (2) transient; (3) changing old to new)     to pass by + to go through (life) It catches my attention for several reasons. For one thing, the spelling (but not the pronunciation) of the yomi reminds me of Kato Kaelin, made famous in the days of OJ's trial, then quickly forgotten. I love finding words such as karen and shaun, whose romanized versions are first names in English. Those "Names" in Kanji ... Beyond that, I like that 過渡 has such disparate definitions: "ferry" versus "transient." If you think poetically, this makes sense; as a boat glides across the water, its... Show more

Quick Links Welcome to Kanji Curiosity | The Basics | Glossary As I mentioned last week, the etymology of 残 (ZAN, noko(ru), noko(su)) contains the idea that it's cruel to hack someone up until nothing remains. But perhaps that's a glass-half-empty perspective. The glass-half-full view would be, "Hey, look! Something remains! In fact, what we have here are human remains!" The 残 kanji figures into many words about things left behind. For instance, take the following expression: 食い残す (kuinokosu: to leave food half-eaten)     to eat + to leave behind This verb has a noun form: 食い残し (kuinokoshi: leftover food)     to eat + to leave behind Just two weeks ago, we saw another... Show more

Quick Links Welcome to Kanji Curiosity | The Basics | Glossary It's easy to think that 残 (ZAN, noko(ru), noko(su): to remain) has a soft nuance. After all, this character shows up in words such as 残念 (zannen: regret, to remain + thoughts). But when you learn the etymology of 残, you'll see that we have a killer kanji on our hands! In 残, says Henshall, the 歹 means "death" or "bare bones." The right-hand side is a halberd (戈), an ax-like weapon, that has been doubled for emphasis. In 残, the 戈 also means "to cut and kill." Altogether we have "to kill someone cruelly by cutting them to the bone." In China, 残 still primarily means "cruel, harm." Some people think that "to remain" is a borrowed meaning, deriving from the idea of hacking a... Show more

Quick Links Welcome to Kanji Curiosity | The Basics | Glossary I don't know much about banking, but I do know that a bank should inspire trust and confidence. The name of the bank has to be serious, a trustworthy brand in and of itself. My first bank account was at Annapolis Bank and Trust, where they put "trust" right in the name. Other banks go by the names of First Capital Bank, Enterprise National Bank, Premier Service Bank, Tomato Bank. Tomato Bank?! Yes, indeed. That's what you find on Sawtelle Boulevard, a Los Angeles street filled with Japanese businesses: On 宏基銀行 ... No matter how silly the name may seem, bankers at Tomato Bank must consider the same serious matters as any garden-variety banker from, say,... Show more

Quick Links Welcome to Kanji Curiosity | The Basics | Glossary Let's start with a quick quiz. What do you think the following might mean? 残生 (zansei)     to remain + life 生残 (seizan)     life + to remain To block the answers, I'll share a photo I took in Los Angeles on Sawtelle Boulevard, a Japanese area that unfortunately extends for just two blocks: Explanation of the Sign ... OK, here are the answers: 残生 (zansei: remainder of one's life)     to remain + life 生残 (seizan: survival)     life + to remain Last week we learned that the yomi of 残 are ZAN, noko(ru), and noko(su). As you can see, its on-yomi is at work... Show more

Quick Links Welcome to Kanji Curiosity | The Basics | Glossary I found a word whose yomi sounds like something a rooster might say: 心残り (kokoronokori: regret; reluctance)     heart + remainder Sample Sentence with 心残り ... It's not quite "cock-a-doodle-doo," but in some parts of the world roosters are quoted as saying "kookoorookoo," which we almost have with kokoronokori. I love the string of o sounds in this fun kun-kun combination! The breakdown is also a winner: regret remains in the heart long after an event has passed. (Of course, anger and sadness also have a great deal of staying power, but somehow regret has prevailed here.) As heart + remainder = regret, it seems natural that the inverse,... Show more

Quick Links Welcome to Kanji Curiosity | The Basics | Glossary If your life is on the line, that's a bad thing. But what if that line were the horizon? Then it wouldn't be a negative idea at all: 生涯 (shōgai: one's lifetime)     life + horizon Your lifetime stretches out over the horizon of your life! Sample Sentence with 生涯 ... It's that time of the year when I move a smidge to the right on the horizon of my life. (I'm assuming one reads horizon life lines from left to right, but it's hard to say for sure!) Or Is All My Life a Circle? ... This means a few things: 1. A short vacation in Malibu (near Los Angeles) with my husband and dogs. Yippee! (Unfortunately, by the time you read this, the... Show more

Quick Links Welcome to Kanji Curiosity | The Basics | Glossary Storks are normally white. And cranes tend to be grey, though blue is also a possibility. So what do you think a red stork or red crane would be? 紅鶴 (benizuru)     red + crane To block the answer, I'll share a picture of a hibiscus plant from my garden. I wanted to post this last week to illustrate the discussion of red flowers, but I didn't get my act together in time. Seeing these flowers makes me feel happy and fortunate, as if I'm somehow living in Hawaii!   Give up? We're talking about flamingos! 紅鶴 (benizuru: flamingo)     red + crane This word combines two kun-yomi, beni and tsuru, which... Show more

Quick Links Welcome to Kanji Curiosity | The Basics | Glossary Today we start with a zoology question—or zoology mixed with kanji! What do you get when you combine a fish with a sheep and then add makeup? OK, I realize this sounds like the asinine lipstick debate that dominated the 2008 U.S. elections for too long. In fact, it was so asinine that I can't even remember why there was a controversy. Glad that's been pushed out of my head. Now I have about two more brain cells that can accommodate kanji. Let me restate the question about the dolled-up fish-sheep hybrid. What could the following mean? 鮮紅As you may know, 鮮 combines a fish (魚) and a sheep (羊). Somehow, they join to mean "vivid." We saw 鮮 in the first question of the... Show more

Quick Links Welcome to Kanji Curiosity | The Basics | Glossary Today brings us the September installment of Alberto's beautiful haiku calendar! Explanation of the Haiku ... I'm curious about the last kanji in the haiku, 紅, particularly in the following word. How would you interpret this? 紅潮     crimson + tide When I saw this compound, my mind went to the "red tide" problem, a high concentration of toxic algae blooms that can prove fatal to sea creatures and indirectly to humans. But that's not what 紅潮 means. Well, then maybe it means "Red Sea," the body of water between Africa and Asia. Or the football team of the University of Alabama—the so-called Crimson Tide. Or perhaps the "red tide" a... Show more