RTK Lesson 7 Flashcards
Little
小
110 (Drop of [x3])
The sense of bring little in this character is not the same as “little bit.” That meaning comes in the next frame. Here little means “small” or “tiny.” The image is one of three little drops, the first of which (the one in the middle) is written larger so that the kanji has some shape to it. The point of writing it three times is to rub the point in: little, little, nothing but little.
*As a primitive of the same shape it keeps the same meaning. Written above a horizontal line, its form is slightly altered, the last two strokes turning inwards like this ⺌.
Few
少
111 (Drop of [x4])
First we need to look at the fourth stroke, the drop of at the bottom that has been extended into a longer diagonal stroke leaning left. This happens because a single, isolated drop will NEVER appear beneath its relative primitive in its normal size, for fear it would drop off and get lost. As for the meaning, let the tiny drop indicate a further belittlement of what is already little-thus making it a few of something little.
Large
大
112
Here we have a simple pictograph of a person, taking up the space of an entire character and giving it a sense of large. It should not be too hard to locate the two legs and outstretched arms.
*As a primitive we need a different meaning, since the element representing the human person will come up later. Therefore, this shape will become large dog or, if you prefer, a St. Bernard dog. In frame 253 we will explain why this choice was made.
Many
多
113 (Moon [x2 but obscured by clouds of time])
“Many moons ago,” begins much Amerindian folklore-a colorful way of saying “Once upon a time” and a great deal of help for remembering this kanji. Here we have two moons (three would take us back to the beginning of time, which is further than we want to go), lacking the final stroke because they are partially obscured by clouds of time.
Evening
夕
114
Just as the word evening adds a touch of formality or romanticism to the ordinary word of “night,” so the kanji for evening takes the ordinary looking moon in the night sky and has a cloud pass over it (as we saw in the last frame).
*The primitive keeps the same connotation and meaning as the kanji.
Eventide
汐
115 (Drops of Water, Evening)
In the next lesson we will meet the character for morning-tide and the element for drops of water. Meantime we have a perfect blend of picture and idea in this kanji to play on the English word for nightfall, eventide: drops of water inching their way up the shore in the evening.
Outside
外
116 (Evening, Magic Wand)
On the left, the primitive for evening, and on the right, that of magic wand. Now, as every magician worth his abracadabra knows, brining your magic wand out into the evening air makes your magic much more powerful than if you were to stay indoors. Hence, evening and magic wand takes you naturally to outside.
Cliff
厂
This primitive means precisely what it looks like: a steep cliff. You can almost see someone standing at the top looking down into the abyss below.
Stone
石
118 (Cliff, Mouth)
With a month under a cliff, what else could we have here but the entrance to a secret cavern, before which a great stone has been rolled so that none may enter. Perhaps it is the hiding place where Ali Baba and his band of thieves have stored their treasures, in which case that magic word kn own to every school Chile who ever delighted over the tales of the Arabian Nights should be enough to push the stone aside. But take care-thee cliff is steep, and one slip will send you tumbling down the ravine below.
This is the one and only time that the second stroke in cliff will reach over to the middle of the horizontal stroke. If you think of the edge jutting outwards (like the story above), the problem should be taken care of.
*The stone is a quite common primitive element, which is not restricted to great boulders but used of stones or rocks of any shape or size.
Resemblance
肖
119 (Little, Flesh)
The word resemblance should suggest, among other things, a son’s resemblance to his father. A “chip off the old block” is the way we have often put it, but the character is more simple. It speaks of a little bit of flesh.
*When used as a primitive, the sense and meaning is replaced by that of spark or candle. (If you want an explanation, the Kanji for moon also carries a secondary sense of fire, which we omitted because we are keeping that meaning for other primitives.)
Nitrate
硝
120 (Rock, Sparks)
The word nitrate should immediately suggest aa beaker full of nitric acid, which, as every high school chemistry student knows, can eat its way through pretty tough substances. Here we imagine pouring it over a rock and watching the sparks fly as it bores a hole through the rock.
Smash
砕
121 (Rock, Baseball, Needle)
We will begin with the two elements on the right, baseball and needle. Since they will be coming together from time to time, let us give the two of them the sense of a game of cricket in which a needle is laid across the wicket. Then imagine using a rock for a ball. A smash hit would probably splinter the bat in all directions, and a smashing pitch would probably do the same with the needle wicket.
Sand
砂
122 (Stone, Few)
Good sand for beaches has few or no stones in it. That means that all of us whose feet have been spoiled by too much time in shoes don’t have to watch our step as we cavort about.
Jealous
妬
123 (Woman, Stone)
It should not be hard to leap from the key word to the image of a woman who is jealous of the rock that another woman is sporting on the third finger of her left hand.
Plane
削
124 (Spark, Saber)
Long before the invention of the carpenter’s plane, people used knives and machetes (or here, sabers) to smooth out their woodwork. If you have ever seen the process, you will have been amazed at the speed agility with which the adept can plane a hunk of wood into shape. Indeed, you can almost see the sparks fly from their sabers.
