象 elephant, phenomenon, image, shape, pattern, imitate, to be modeled after, a sign of the times ⺈,中,吅,豕,

注意：このページには、一部の読者にとって不快または不適切な内容が含まれている可能性があります。
Note: This page may contain content that is offensive or inappropriate for some readers.

MingLiU:

Mincho:

Gothic:

象

Login Welcome!　Introduction
Glyphs missing from your font set may appear strange, or not at all. We recommend enabling East Asian language support.

On-yomi [ Toggle rōmaji ]

ショウ　･　ゾウ
SHO　U　･　ZO　U

Kun-yomi

かたど(る
ka　ta　do　ru

Glyph elements [ Toggle Font ]

⺈

× HTML entity: ⺈ head and neck exposed, in danger; looking upward, head up peeping out from inside

　HEAD ROLLED BACK
…or: the HEAD in 2ND POSITION
…or: HEAD in HIGH TENSION
　

中

チュウ,なか,うち,あた to hit the 'bull's eye' while doing (something), middle, center, within, on the inside, among; two-sided, throughout; vulva, Mother China

　ROD in ORIFICE
…or: ORIFICE TOP TO BOTTOM
…or: ROD in JUXTAPOSED ORIFICES, ROWDY BEHAVIOR
…or: SCREWING in CAVITY
…or: SCREWING in SPREAD LEGS
　

吅

× juxtaposed orifices, rowdy behavior; female-female relations

　multiple ORIFICES, MOUTHS
　

豕

シ,× obese concubine, a fat person, piggish; swine

　HORIZONTAL, GUSHING CHUNKS or BEASTLY and PERSON SITTING MOST OF THE TIME
　

Meanings of elements

HEAD AND NECK, TWO-SIDED, ANIMAL THAT CANNOT RUN
…or: IN DANGER from VULVA, ROWDY JUXTAPOSED ORIFICES of OBESE ANIMAL

「Head and neck, dangerous」with「two-sided, vulva or rowdy」with「piggish animal that cannot run」(elephants technically are unable to run, since they must have at least one foot on the ground at all times…elephants can walk fairly fast, though).
Might be imagined as an ELEPHANT'S trunk and large ears, a PHENOMENON and IMAGE, PATTERN, IMITATE, MODELED AFTER, also derived from an elephant's uncanny ability to imitate various sounds, even patterned nearly exactly after the voices of human beings, far more accurate than the sounds that a parrot can reproduce.
Or, depicts that we can only see one side of such a large animal at one time, like a「two-sided wall」although with the naked eye we can only see one side at a time of a mouse, too.
Perhaps「head and neck」and「two-sided, vulva」merged with「pig」to represent an obese animal with the general shape and PATTERN, IMITATING, MODELED AFTER a pig, only PHENOMENALLY larger.
The same upper elements are used to express female genitalia (免):「head and neck」with「vulva」may refer to the gestation period of elephants (the longest of any animal, land or sea) or their own huge, phenomenal genitalia. PHENOMENON and IMAGE derive from the「phenomenal image」that an elephant projects as the largest living land animal, especially viewed from a close range.
Finally, PHENOMENON and PATTERN, IMITATE, MODELED AFTER all refer to the practice of foot-dis-integrating and binding as a practice that spread rapidly throughout China (see 写 for details), naturally creating an estimated one billion elephantine, zaftig, service-providing but lame concubines who wallowed about most of the day over the course of the centuries.

External source definitions …excluding politically incorrect concepts and other meanings deemed offensive today; may include extended definitions, euphemisms, and mnemonics)
Chinese: elephant; shape; form; appearance; to imitate
Japanese EDRDG: elephant, pattern after, imitate, image, shape, sign (of the times)
Unihan extended: elephant; ivory; figure, image

Used within names (nanori)
きさ

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.