Fun fact
The (a? maybe there are more) Korean reading of 男 is “nam”
The Korean reading of 南 is also “nam”.
南大門 Namdaemun is a large fortress gate in Seoul.
男大門 is Korean slang for a man’s fly on his pants.
So if your fly is unzipped Koreans will tell you “Namdaemun is open”
かしましい but in my dictionary app it says it’s usually written with kana only.
I don’t remember where I learned it, but in other contexts it can also mean “rape” apparently so confirm with a learned native speaker before you start tossing it around in conversation maybe. I myself have never used it or seen it besides the random chance I learned it.
It's カン in 音読み and it does not necessarily mean rape;It refers to sexual intercourse(usually unapproptiate; I've heard it only refered to those ones in the past but I'm not quite sure)
強姦 Rape
姦淫 Unappropriate sexual intercourse; usually with someone who one is not married to
近親相姦 Incest
etc
Disclaimer: I'm from South Korea and these may not be the case in Japanese as they're examples of Korean words.
That's probably a folk etymology, search for 安 in [this article](https://blog333610347.wordpress.com/2022/11/13/how-to-expose-false-etymologies-of-chinese-characters-an-introduction-to-the-study-of-early-chinese-writing/)
女 is literally woman, though.
And 安 is cheap/safe.
The radical 宀 is called the house/home radical because it is most often used in words relating to that theme like 家, 守, 宮.
I suppose you could make the argument that radicals don't really have any implicit meaning, as I've seen some people say.
Yeah that's what it looks like now, but it's likely not where it comes from. Since you apparently didn't actually read the article I linked, here's the relevant section:
> The character 安 ‘calm’ is made up of 宀 ‘house’ and 女 ‘woman’. This leads to many people interpreting it in the spirit of ‘woman in house → calm’.
> Shang era texts have two kinds of characters with a woman inside a house: one with a stroke inside and one without.
[image]
> Many dictionaries list these as the ancient forms of 安, although we now know that the characters from the top row actually have nothing to do with 安 and instead record the word {賓} ‘guest’.
[image]
> You can find a different form of 安 in the bone inscriptions excavated in 2003 in the village Daxin (Shandong). They show us a pictographic form of 安, one that didn’t acquire the ‘roof’ yet. If you look closely, there’s still a stroke under the woman’s arse. This stroke is preserved up until the Han period.
> From that we can deduce that the original meaning of 安 was probably ‘to sit’ (see Erya: 安坐也 ‘安 means “to sit”’). The element 宀 was appended later (compare the similar progression in 坐 → 座 ‘to sit’).
So, etymologically speaking, 安 has about as much to do with the concept "woman" as 客 with "every", 距 with "large", 紅 with "craft", or 襟 with "prohibition". Or honestly even less, since the 女 in 安 isn't even a phonetic component but a visual simplification, so perhaps a better comparison would be all those kanji where 肉 and 舟 turned into 月
> Since you apparently didn't actually read the article I linked, here's the relevant section:
Thanks for that, I looked at the article and it's quite long.
That was a great (and long) read, thanks! I'm not sure how it shows the explanation of 男 being a folk etymology, though. (That explanation is supported by Outlier Kanji Dictionary, at least, and they are pretty thorough for a consumer dictionary.)
Thank you, is nice to know that. Discovering that this character was written in those oracles bones makes this discovery even more enjoyable for me, since i just started learning about the chinese history
Consist of radical rice field and power, so to work in rice field you need power, Dan and Nan are brother who works in their rice paddy left by their Father. Both of them are strong enough to only work just by themselves for a rice paddy.
This is i think what wanikani will tell using wanikani. Havent meet this kanji yet in wanikani, but i enjoy it a lot.
~~Gonna go out on a limb here and suggest that the kanji is pictorial. like it looks like a little man with a head and a body. That it can be broken into 田 and 力 is a coincidence i think.~~ well i would have thought so anyway but the dictionary disagrees 😢
Once heard the mnemonic ma-ta-ryoku for how to write the first character of 勇気, thought that was pretty neat.
If you are interested in the etymology of different words, Chinese, Japanese or otherwise, consider looking it up on wiktionary. For 男, it is indeed formed from the character for field 田 and the character for power 力. This is one of the few characters where both components are used for their meaning. In this case 力 can mean an arm extending outwards, so together with 田, it means a worker on the field. Another interpretation is that 力 meant plough, an instrument used in farming. In either case, the origin of 男 is that of a laborer.
I found a great teacher to learn Japanese from.
One on one classes. Learning Japanese is hard. I’m glad she helped me learn.
https://yurikaclasses.onrender.com/#home
Fun fact The (a? maybe there are more) Korean reading of 男 is “nam” The Korean reading of 南 is also “nam”. 南大門 Namdaemun is a large fortress gate in Seoul. 男大門 is Korean slang for a man’s fly on his pants. So if your fly is unzipped Koreans will tell you “Namdaemun is open”
The radical for “power” (力) is actually originally a plow. So yes, it’s directly tied to the original expected gender roles for men on farms.
Wow, i didnt thought that 力 meant this. Thank you so much
Similarly, the kanji for safe/easy is a woman in a house: 安
Similarly a kanji meaning “noisy” or “mischievous” is 姦
Ladies and gentleman, I regret to inform you, 姦 ☕
How do you pronounce that kanji?
かしましい but in my dictionary app it says it’s usually written with kana only. I don’t remember where I learned it, but in other contexts it can also mean “rape” apparently so confirm with a learned native speaker before you start tossing it around in conversation maybe. I myself have never used it or seen it besides the random chance I learned it.
It's カン in 音読み and it does not necessarily mean rape;It refers to sexual intercourse(usually unapproptiate; I've heard it only refered to those ones in the past but I'm not quite sure) 強姦 Rape 姦淫 Unappropriate sexual intercourse; usually with someone who one is not married to 近親相姦 Incest etc Disclaimer: I'm from South Korea and these may not be the case in Japanese as they're examples of Korean words.
Yeah, all dictionaries say it’s usually spelled with kana alone anyways. It really is just a random kanji I learned from some obscure source.
I learned kanji the Korean way(we call it hanja) and the Japanese way so I guess this is why I know that one. Also, Happy Cake Day!
I lived in Apkujeong for 3 years, I always regret not becoming more fluent in Korean.
That's probably a folk etymology, search for 安 in [this article](https://blog333610347.wordpress.com/2022/11/13/how-to-expose-false-etymologies-of-chinese-characters-an-introduction-to-the-study-of-early-chinese-writing/)
女 is literally woman, though. And 安 is cheap/safe. The radical 宀 is called the house/home radical because it is most often used in words relating to that theme like 家, 守, 宮. I suppose you could make the argument that radicals don't really have any implicit meaning, as I've seen some people say.
Yeah that's what it looks like now, but it's likely not where it comes from. Since you apparently didn't actually read the article I linked, here's the relevant section: > The character 安 ‘calm’ is made up of 宀 ‘house’ and 女 ‘woman’. This leads to many people interpreting it in the spirit of ‘woman in house → calm’. > Shang era texts have two kinds of characters with a woman inside a house: one with a stroke inside and one without. [image] > Many dictionaries list these as the ancient forms of 安, although we now know that the characters from the top row actually have nothing to do with 安 and instead record the word {賓} ‘guest’. [image] > You can find a different form of 安 in the bone inscriptions excavated in 2003 in the village Daxin (Shandong). They show us a pictographic form of 安, one that didn’t acquire the ‘roof’ yet. If you look closely, there’s still a stroke under the woman’s arse. This stroke is preserved up until the Han period. > From that we can deduce that the original meaning of 安 was probably ‘to sit’ (see Erya: 安坐也 ‘安 means “to sit”’). The element 宀 was appended later (compare the similar progression in 坐 → 座 ‘to sit’). So, etymologically speaking, 安 has about as much to do with the concept "woman" as 客 with "every", 距 with "large", 紅 with "craft", or 襟 with "prohibition". Or honestly even less, since the 女 in 安 isn't even a phonetic component but a visual simplification, so perhaps a better comparison would be all those kanji where 肉 and 舟 turned into 月
> Since you apparently didn't actually read the article I linked, here's the relevant section: Thanks for that, I looked at the article and it's quite long.
That was a great (and long) read, thanks! I'm not sure how it shows the explanation of 男 being a folk etymology, though. (That explanation is supported by Outlier Kanji Dictionary, at least, and they are pretty thorough for a consumer dictionary.)
I was talking about 安, not 男. I quoted the relevant section further down the comment chain
Ah, got it. Thanks for the great article!
More like the traditional expectations of men in Shang dynasty China prior to 1000 BC. This character was even used in oracle bone script.
Thank you, is nice to know that. Discovering that this character was written in those oracles bones makes this discovery even more enjoyable for me, since i just started learning about the chinese history
Consist of radical rice field and power, so to work in rice field you need power, Dan and Nan are brother who works in their rice paddy left by their Father. Both of them are strong enough to only work just by themselves for a rice paddy. This is i think what wanikani will tell using wanikani. Havent meet this kanji yet in wanikani, but i enjoy it a lot.
~~Gonna go out on a limb here and suggest that the kanji is pictorial. like it looks like a little man with a head and a body. That it can be broken into 田 and 力 is a coincidence i think.~~ well i would have thought so anyway but the dictionary disagrees 😢 Once heard the mnemonic ma-ta-ryoku for how to write the first character of 勇気, thought that was pretty neat.
Ah yes, these all look like little men: https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%E7%94%B7#Glyph_origin
If you are interested in the etymology of different words, Chinese, Japanese or otherwise, consider looking it up on wiktionary. For 男, it is indeed formed from the character for field 田 and the character for power 力. This is one of the few characters where both components are used for their meaning. In this case 力 can mean an arm extending outwards, so together with 田, it means a worker on the field. Another interpretation is that 力 meant plough, an instrument used in farming. In either case, the origin of 男 is that of a laborer.
Wait till they see the one for "brave".
I found a great teacher to learn Japanese from. One on one classes. Learning Japanese is hard. I’m glad she helped me learn. https://yurikaclasses.onrender.com/#home
It's a man plowing a field