景況 (keikyō: situation; business climate; outlook)
conditions + conditions
A native speaker tells me that this is not a common word and that only intellectuals use it. (Indeed, the man who wrote me the email containing 景況 had tried to discuss Max Weber with me in Japanese when we met on a train in New Zealand. I doubt I could discuss such a thing competently in English, much less in Japanese. I still have no idea what “we” discussed.) Here’s the breakdown for 景況:
景 (KEI, kage: scenery, view, bright; business conditions; conditions, circumstances)
This character combines 日 (sun) with 京 (capital), although 京 doesn’t mean “capital” here. Rather, it means “clear, open, exposed.” Something open to the sun is bright. And “open to the light” extends to the meanings of “scenery, view.” You likely know this kanji from 景色 (keshiki: scenery, scenery + scenery), which involves a special reading (ke) of 景.
況 (KYŌ, mashi(te): conditions, situation, more so)
Looks like a wet (
) elder brother (兄). Actually, according to Henshall, this 兄 gives off the sense of “very cold” and possibly “big.” The radical used to be “ice” (
), not “water” (
