Login
Welcome! Introduction
Glyphs missing from your font set may appear strange, or not at all. We recommend enabling East Asian language support.
Glyph elements [ Toggle Font ]
[ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oyster 2013-09-14 ]
It is not easy to touch live oysters in the sea since the animal protects itself with its shell. Oysters attach themselves to rocks or other objects by anchoring the shell with what appears to be「thick, bristly hairs」called byssus that are extremely tough calcified ligaments:「The byssal gland lodges the common root of a bundle of stout, laterally compressed bronze-green fibres: the byssal threads. Each fibre of the byssus anchors the pearl oyster to rocks and other hard objects by means of a discoid attachment at the distal extremity. The anterior edge of the mouth of the byssal gland passes into the pedal groove extending along the whole of the remaining length of the ventral surface of the foot.」
[ https://www.fao.org/3/ab726e/ab726e03.htm 2023-05-17 ]
Nevertheless, while most species of oysters produce byssal threads, not all do, such as Olympia oysters:「When the spat (larvae) leave the brooding chamber, they begin to develop an eye spot and a foot. They then migrate to hard surfaces (usually old oyster shells) were they attach by secreting a 'glue' like substance from their byssus gland. Ostrea lurida spat swim with their foot superior to the rest of their body. This swimming position causes the larvae to attach to the underside of horizontal surfaces.」
[ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ostrea_lurida 2014-09-07 ] Hmmm, sticky schmutz on the underside of a foot of the hairless young, and with the foot raised above one's body attaching itself to hard adults, again…
External source definitions …excluding politically incorrect concepts and other meanings deemed offensive today; may include extended definitions, euphemisms, and mnemonics)
Chinese: oyster
Japanese EDRDG: hairy venomous caterpillars
Unihan extended: hairy and poisonous caterpillars
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
Chinese usage: 2 entries
Similar glyphs with related meanings: 33 entries
- Glyph.03394
- Strokes: 10
- other
Agree? Disagree? Express your opinion by posting a comment.
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.
This publication has included material from the Unicode Character Database. Copyright © 1991-2016 Unicode, Inc. All rights reserved. Distributed under these Terms of Use.
