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Welcome! Introduction
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RO U ・ RU
ka go ・ ko me ru ・ ko mo ru ・ ko mu
Glyph elements [ Toggle Font ]
A dragon might kowtow and bow down in homage only if caged. However,「bamboo like a dragon」might make sense as something that captures a person, a place from which escape is nearly impossible, since legend has it that dragons are clever, quick, and strong, so are difficult to elude (with some notable exceptions). Perhaps「dragon」was included simply due to the shape of its many strokes, resembling a CAGE, BASKET of「bamboo」lattice. It is unlikely that anyone believed a bamboo cage could contain an actual dragon (as we all certainly know, actual dragons are pretty tough…). Note that this glyph is also used to depict a palanquin, a traveling cage for dignitaries representing the「dragon emperor」of China, and that thought may serve as a useful mnemonic. Also known in the West as a CODPIECE, formerly worn while treating infections.
Bamboo strips were cut when green and pliable and woven into baskets. One of these uses was as a protective supporter, exactly as a codpiece was used in Europe and an athletic supporter with cup is used by male contact sport athletes today. The basket not only provided some protection against painful and unwanted contact of sensitive infected areas, but enabled a poultice filled with mashed grains and herbal treatments to maintain constant contact with the infected areas, provide deodorant functions, and hold absorbent batting.
Modern definitions (that generally disregard history) …excluding politically incorrect concepts and other meanings deemed offensive today; may list only pigeonholed definitions, euphemisms, or meaningless mnemonics)
Chinese: to cover; to cage; covering; basket; cage; flat bamboo basket used to serve dimsum 點心|点心; to cover; to cage; to embrace; to manipulate through trickery
Japanese: basket, hamper, cage, to be crowded, to be packed, to be complex, to seclude oneself, to be confined in, to be filled, to be heavy, to be stuffy, to be implied, to load, to charge, to put into, to include, to hang over, to shroud, to enshroud, to envelop, to screen
Unihan extended: cage; cage-like basket
EDRDG: basket; devote oneself; seclude oneself; cage; coop; implied
Used within names (nanori)
ごめ ・ もり
Always keep in mind that these glyphs were originally created by groups of clever old men as vulgar riddles and analogies for their own entertainment
(see 籒 for that)
and represented Chinese society many thousands of years ago, and not as a written or spoken language.
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!
Sex had no shame in ancient China. Why would it? And now, there is a cover-up.
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 bad the human world is today, do you actually believe that the so-called good old days were any better? Or they could only 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 dictionary.
This site explains the dual meanings of glyphs most often ignored by other sources that provide you with only the sanctioned definition, generally.
Primal elements
Japanese vocabulary: 140 entries
Chinese usage: 30 entries
Related glyphs [ Toggle font ]
Similar glyphs with related meanings: 48 entries
- Glyph.13167
- Strokes: 23 ~ 22
- 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.
This publication has included material from the Unicode Character Database. Copyright © 1991-2016 Unicode, Inc. All rights reserved. Distributed under these Terms of Use.