Dense and Detailed: Part 3
Friday, April 4th, 2008
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We saw two weeks back that 密 has three disparate meanings:
1) Close, dense, thick, compact, tight
2) Minuteness, carefulness
3) Secret, private, illegal, stealthy
Thus far, we’ve only explored meaning #3.
As I’ve said, it’s odd that these meanings appear to be so far apart. But are they really? Maybe not. Let’s look at some takes on secrecy:
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The secret of a good sermon is to have a good beginning and a good ending, then having the two as close together as possible. —George Burns (1896–1996) |
He’s obviously linking secrecy (meaning #3) with closeness, density, compactness (meaning #1). OK, let’s try another:
| The whole secret of life is to be interested in one thing profoundly and in a thousand things well. —Horace Walpole (1717–1797) |
This Walpole fellow clearly linked secrecy (meaning #3) with careful, highly detailed exploration (meaning #2). And I’m pretty sure that this quote espouses a deep love of kanji, while also advocating general curiosity. So … kanji curiosity is a good thing, right?
Let’s hear words of wisdom from one more source:
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The secret of being a bore is to tell everything. —Voltaire (1694–1778 ) |
Oh, dear. Why do I have a terrible feeling that this, too, refers to Kanji Curiosity?
OK, without further ado, let’s look at meanings #1 and #2.
1. Being Dense
Here are some examples of 密 as “dense”:
密林 (mitsurin: dense forest, jungle) dense + forest
Not much to say about this word, except that I like its straightforward logic!
過密 (kamitsu: overcrowded) to exceed + dense
Seems like a useful word to know, as in this phrase:
過密都市 (kamitsu toshi: overcrowded city)
to exceed + dense + metropolis + city濃密 (nōmitsu: thick; rich (as in taste or content); crowded)
thick + density
It seems strange that 濃密 could refer at once to something thick in texture, something rich in taste or in meaning, and a tight cluster of buildings. Maybe some sample phrases will give a sense of that adaptability.
Curiously, Halpern sees “intimacy” as a type of “density”! I’m not sure I follow the logic, but here’s a word in which 密 means “close, intimate”:
親密 (shinmitsu: intimacy, friendship) intimate + intimate
Sounds like 親密 is all about love and good feelings, no? No. See the second sentence at the next link for yet another reminder that politics and money, not love, make the world go round.
2. Being Highly Detailed
With Voltaire’s words still ringing in my ears, I won’t be too detailed in discussing the following compounds, which speak for themselves:
細密 (saimitsu: detailed knowledge; finely detailed)
narrow, slender + detailedYou may know the first kanji by its kun-yomi of hoso(i).
詳密 (shōmitsu: minute; detailed; elaborate) detailed + detailedYou may know the first kanji by its kun-yomi, kuwa(shii).
精密 (seimitsu: precise; exact; detailed; minute; close)
refined + detailedOh, dear. The first kanji here also has the kun-yomi of kuwa(shii), but that’s an extremely rare reading.
In my opinion, here’s the best compound of the day:
周到綿密 (shūtōmenmitsu: extremely complete (thorough, careful) and detailed) scrupulous, meticulous, careful (1st 2 chars.) + detailed, scrupulous, thorough (last 2 chars.)
To be completely thorough (because, let’s face it, Voltaire died a few centuries back, and why should I feel hamstrung by his snide comment?), here’s the full breakdown of 周到綿密:
to go round + to reach the limit of + cotton + detailed
I don’t know what “cotton” is doing here, but I like the rest of the breakdown. It gives me the image of walking the periphery of a space (a cotton field?), going to the limit with a detailed investigation.
Where Have I Seen These Kanji Before? …
In another nod to thoroughness, I should mention that you can flip around this compound and find essentially the same meaning:
綿密周到 (menmitsushūtō: detailed and careful, scrupulous, meticulous, elaborate)
As a Virgo and a Type A, I really like these words. And if you’ve hung in here this long, I’m guessing that you, too, like thorough, detailed explorations. (Either that, or you’re about to release some pent-up frustration in my direction!) Well, perhaps I can appease you with two Verbal Logic Quizzes!
Posted by Eve Kushner in Kanji Curiosity |
April 6th, 2008 at 2:57 am
Found the website of a Canadian artist who includes kanji compounds in her paintings:
http://soniei.blogspot.com/2008/04/few-of-my-paintings-made-in-february.html
It’s not true of the 1st 2 works on her page, but after that, all the paintings have kanji. I’ve seen kanji in Western art … but rarely compounds!
The romaji guide to the 3rd painting is a little confusing. She starts with the big red square, then goes to the small red square, then starts at the upper left and reads across.
Anyway, enjoy!
April 6th, 2008 at 10:07 am
Reading about お菓子, 綿飴, and “mitsu” makes me crave some 餡蜜 (an-mitsu). Yum!
April 6th, 2008 at 10:53 am
Kelly! Glad to see you’ve moved on to more appetizing topics since last week! Or have you…? I don’t know anything about 餡蜜 (anmitsu). My dictionary has this to say about it: “{food} syrup-covered anko (bean jam) and fruit; mitsumame mixed with an(ko).” Hmm… Doesn’t sound too good so far!
OK, I found a picture: http://www.takato-y.co.jp/anmitsu2.htm.
I guess that looks passable….
I’m also having trouble (gastronomically) with the insect (虫) lodged in your MITSU (蜜). But that character means “honey” or “nectar,” so I guess we need insects for that! Aha, I see that 蜂蜜 (hachimitsu: honey) has 2 sets of insects! And then we’ve got 蜜月 (mitsugetsu: honeymoon)!
But mitsumame (蜜豆) is “boiled beans with molasses.” I don’t know… I’m going to have to take your word for it about this 蜜 concoction!
April 7th, 2008 at 8:28 pm
Eve,
An-mitsu is a sweet, delicious little dessert which doesn’t sound quite as good when described. My image of anmitsu is molasses poured over beans, candied fruits, and kanten (sea plant-based) jello squares.
Funny that I never noticed all the bugs in hachimitsu. hahaha. Thanks!
April 10th, 2008 at 7:25 am
I am very glad to see some “whale-fish” concept back in the comments. Hope readers remember the #11 entry back in June last year when Eve first introduced this concept (maybe somebody else wrote a thesis on it earlier!). I proposed to establish a more or less a clear definition of whale/fish compounds and the idea has been on my mind since. Anyway, I have been more interested in finding “Kushnerites”—compounds whose constituent kanji have a common denominator (CD). 蜂蜜 is not a whale-fish but a Kushnerite.
When I feel hungry for something printed but nothing particularly interests me, it is a nice pastime to look for Kushnerites in newspapers. Both whale-fishes and Kushnerites involving the 木 (tree) radical and 水 (water) radical, for instance, are so numerous that even a beginning kanji student may be able to come up with a few examples.
Here are some cute (?) ones: 麒麟 (giraffe) whose CD is the deer and 珈琲 (coffee) whose CD is the king. Why should two kings be hiding in a coffee cup?!
April 11th, 2008 at 8:28 am
Thanks for the very cute (yes, definitely cute!) comment, Hiroshi-san. I like the mathematical expression (common denominator or CD) for what’s essentially a game!
Here are the yomi and breakdowns for the intriguing compounds you introduced:
coffee: 珈琲 (kōhī, ornamental hairpin + string of many pearls). Ah, a nice example of ateji! And maybe the choice of kanji indicates that coffee has been precious to people for a long, long time!
giraffe 麒麟 (kirin). Wow!!! Both kanji have identical meanings, and there’s a strange assortment of them: Chinese unicorn; genius; giraffe; bright; shining.
Unfortunately, Henshall doesn’t list these characters, so I don’t know about the etymology. But 粦 also appears in 隣 (tonari: neighbor), and in his explanation of that character, Henshall says that 粦 is a Chinese-only character meaning “flitting light.” It also gives the sense of “upturned feet” and “stop and start,” thus meaning “light that stops and starts.” Hmm … go figure!