The Short and Long of It: Part 1
Saturday, November 17th, 2007
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I find 意 (I: will, heart, mind, thought, meaning, sense) to be one of the cutest kanji around. It reminds me of an upright animal with the following assets:
A head beneath a beret
A blocky torso
Two legs, a long tail that curls around, and … well, just
pretend we’ve got a male animal in our midst
Put it all together, and you get something like this:
Long-Tailed Weasel
Photo credit: Anne Elliott
No beret, but the tapering of the cheeks matches the lines in 立! This long-tailed weasel likely sports a long, flexible tail, even if we can’t tell here.
Short and Sweet
Speaking of length, 意 figures into some unusually short words:
意味 (imi: meaning) meaning + meaning
意義 (igi: significance) meaning + meaning
意気 (iki: spirits, morale) heart + spirit
意志 (ishi: will, intention, determination) intention + to intend
意思 (ishi: intent, purpose, mind) intention + to think
Whereas Julius Caesar created the bellicose phrase Veni, vidi, vici (I came, I saw, I conquered), we can concoct softer, more Zenlike versions in Japanese: Imi, igi, iki (Meaning, significance, spirits) or Imi, igi, ishi (Meaning, significance, intent).
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Posted by Eve Kushner in Kanji Curiosity | 5 Comments »
