Call to Order: Part 1
Friday, July 18th, 2008
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In the last blog, we saw this word:
身長順 (shinchōjun: in order of height) body + length + order
I love all the sharp geometry in these kanji—the way a few diagonals offset the neat horizontals and verticals. But aside from that, here’s what jumped out at me when I found this word in the dictionary:
順 (JUN: sequence, compliance)
I’d never seen this kanji before. And I was intrigued that river (川) + head (頁) could mean “order.” There’s order at the head of the river?
If you want to put things in order, then 順 is your kanji. This character isn’t sexy or mysterious. Rather, it’s as practical and sensible as a pair of oxford shoes. But if you’re the sort of person who gets excited at the Container Store (as I am, I must admit!) or whose idea of a good vacation is to reorganize closets and drawers (me again), then you’re going to love this kanji.
OK, I heard some of you walk out and slam the door behind you! But I don’t think I’m overselling when I say that 順 can help you make sense of things. Look over the following terms, and see if you aren’t thinking more clearly at the end:
筆順 (hitsujun: stroke order) brush + order
Another way to write “stroke order” is 書き順 (kakijun: to write + order). Now we can talk with native speakers about stroke order. That’s so important! I may be able to discuss a variety of subjects in Japanese, but when I want to talk to native speakers about radicals, components, stroke order, and such, I often don’t know the vocabulary. How frustrating that is! By the way, as long as we’re on the topic, the way to refer to actual kanji strokes is 画 (KAKU). Check out the sample sentence with 画.
Sample Sentence About Strokes …
大きい順 (ōkiijun: decreasing order, largest first) big + order
Posted by Eve Kushner in Kanji Curiosity | 4 Comments »
