役 duty, obligatory role, a task one must perform, forced labor, compulsory service, going to war 彳,几,又,殳,

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MingLiU:

Mincho:

Gothic:

役

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On-yomi [ Toggle rōmaji ]

ヤク　･　エキ
YA　KU　･　E　KI

Glyph elements [ Toggle Font ]

彳

テキ,たたず loitering, aimless dawdling, standing idle, purposeless motion, taking small steps, multiple people heads, multiple sliding rod heads, taking steps with the left foot only, adult man going, departing markedly from the usual or customary in an extreme or drastic manner

　multiple HEADS of PEOPLE
…or: multiple HEADS of A MALE PERSON
…or: multiple HEADS SLIDING on ROD
　

几

キ,きにょう skin sheath, prepuce; stretched skin, skin that stretches significantly; how much? how many times? a place for your hand or arm, armrest

　CURTAIN with PENIS
…or: ROD SEGMENT within COPULATION
…or: ERECTION and THRUSTING FORWARD TAKING FLIGHT
…or: HAND with PENIS
　

又

ユウ,また,また～ once again, this or that, yield, both, any method at all, crotch

　GASPING and TAUT
…or: LAME FOOT with the OTHER SIDE, TOO
　

殳

シュ,また,ほこ stretched skin of crotch, the tools of one's trade, weapon readied, spear-like shape, stiff wooden rod

　STIFF SKIN of CROTCH
…or: SKIN SHEATH with CROTCH, YIELD AGAIN AND AGAIN
　

Meanings of elements

LOITERING, PURPOSELESS MOTION, AIMLESS WANDERING with WEAPON, STRETCHED CROTCH SKIN
…or: HEAD SLIDING with PERSON and STRETCHED SKIN of CROTCH, STIFF POLE

「Purposeless motion, aimless wandering, loitering」or「line of persons」with the right element of「tool or weapon, stretched skin of crotch」to depict a soldier's DUTY to perform a ROLE in the SERVICE to his lord and fief when GOING TO WAR, but also suggests FORCED LABOR, COMPULSORY duties of peasants.「Stretched skin」with「crotch」an obvious innuendo regarding the purposelessness of war in general perhaps. Note the related glyph in Chinese means「serving in the military」and is comprised of the elements「circle jerking efforts」(効). Perhaps the sages also considered it any male's duty to stretch the skin of crotches…undeniably, the DNA of the male of most species drives each individual to reproduce as the prime directive in order to insure the survival of the species as FORCED EFFORT, COMPULSORY, the DUTY to perform a ROLE and SERVICE the females, GOING TO WAR against rival males by butting heads and so on to determine which is the victor and who gets the waiting harem of females in heat.

External source definitions …excluding politically incorrect concepts and other meanings deemed offensive today; may include extended definitions, euphemisms, and mnemonics)
Chinese: forced labor; corvée; obligatory task; military service; to use as servant; to enserf; servant (old); war; campaign; battle
Japanese EDRDG: duty, war, campaign, drafted labor, office, service, role
Unihan extended: service; a servant, laborer; to serve

Used within names (nanori)
ちゃく

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.