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RA TSU ・ RA ・ RO U
ra s su ru ・ hi shi gu ・ ku da ku
Glyph elements [ Toggle Font ]
Applies to a「pull and drag across」action, such as drawing a bow of horsehairs across violin strings.
Modern terms such as「zipper」and「facelift」use this glyph. PULLING, DRAGGING, ELONGATING by the hair also means both ewe kid nabbing and to KIDNAP, as in grabbing a female by the hair and dragging her off to your cave, bandit lair, or pirate ship.「Kid nabbing」that later became「kidnapping」refers to stealing a prized young ewe or kid goat and running off with it under one's arm to screw with it.
Some sources say that in old Chinese the meaning also is to「discharge from the genitals」(including diarrhea, defecating, and urinating) and coupling「standing erection」with「use one's hands to elongate by pulling」it not difficult to imagine yet another reference to the classic「use of two-handed wanker pull」innuendo as the likely formerly contrived meaning, with a modern extension in Chinese to「lesbian, female homosexual」but for reasons unexplained.
Another apparent meaning in Japanese is to「crush underfoot, stepping on a worm」which seems confusing when considering the literal elements of「using talented hands to stand erect」but not so if we realize that there is no will or strength remaining to stand, much like a LIMP NOODLE, and using talented hands in that case maybe was likened to SQUEEZING A WORM until its guts spurt out one end—and, who hasn't done that?
External source definitions …excluding politically incorrect concepts and other meanings deemed offensive today; may include extended definitions, euphemisms, and mnemonics)
Chinese: to pull; to play (a bowed instrument); to drag; to draw; to chat
Japanese EDRDG: Latin, kidnap, crush
Unihan extended: pull, drag; seize, hold; lengthen
Always keep in mind that these glyphs most likely were originally designed by groups of clever old men as vulgar riddles for their own entertainment
(see 籒 for that),
representing Chinese society many thousands of years ago, but intended NOT as a written or spoken language when created.
If these glyphs had been intended for language use, the sages could not have possibly designed a worse system!
Is it truly possible that all these glyphs started out as off-color jokes and puzzles?
Yes! It is, and often with multiple correct answers to each riddle, the same as is true today.
Sex had no shame in ancient China.
Why would it?
But, have there been necessary rewrites and altered explanations of the original elemental meanings over the centuries?
No one is suggesting these glyphs depict contemporary life in China, Japan, or anywhere else.
This site describes glyph meanings, not people.
These glyphs however, describe many and various things, including people, long before there were any notions of becoming politically incorrect.
The question to be answered is, should these glyphs continue being used, by anyone, anywhere, for expressing language?
(More...)
Despite how seemingly bad our human existence is today, do you actually believe that the so-called good old days were any better?
Or could they have been worse?
By the way, with a limited number of the same elements used by the sages again and again to form these glyphs,
you should expect to find the same explanations again and again, as tedious as that may become, and as an inherent trait of any lexicon.
This site explains multiple meanings of glyphs ignored or censored by other sources, generally as being too embarrassing to admit today.
Primal elements
Japanese vocabulary: 25 entries
Chinese usage: 601 entries
Used in glyphs (or, see also): 11 entries
Related glyphs [ Toggle font ]
Similar glyphs with related meanings: 46 entries
- Glyph.01835
- Strokes: 08
- grade_08
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This publication has included material from the MDBG free online English to Chinese dictionary files in accordance with the license provisions of the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 License.
This publication has included material from the JMdict (EDICT, etc.) dictionary files in accordance with the license provisions of the Electronic Dictionaries Research Group.
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