Tuesday, September 30, 2014

0064 騒



This character means ‘make a noise, make a fuss,’ and is pronounced and sawagu in Japanese, sāo in Chinese. I could find no information about its derivation. It’s parts, though, provided a simple story by which it could be remembered.


The left-hand element




means ‘horse.' See the four legs and the tail and the streaming mane? The upper right-hand element




means ‘and, again, also, in addition,’ and the lower right-hand element




means ‘insect.’


A horse is repeatedly bothered by insects and makes a fuss, makes a lot of noise.


Interestingly, these two characters together


騒人

mean ‘poet’ (sōjin), at least in Japanese. (The second character means 'man, person.') Apparently, poets are those who make noise and make a fuss. Or, at least, they used to be.

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