What are some kanji compounds that have cool/interesting/amusing/surprising meanings based on their individual kanji? One of my favorites is 青春 (せいしゅん, kanji for blue + spring) which means youth, adolescence
literally “sword curtain”, it’s when someone gives you a menacing look
Can you post more about kanji
In this case I think you should interpret it as green rather than blue.
空蝉 【utsu semi】(Sky + Cicada) which means People living in this world
肉薄【niku haku】(Meat+ thin) which means approaching very closely
牙城 【ga jyou】(fang + Castle) which means The center of an organization or force
you’ll love this one 売春 which is sell the spring … I let you find the meaning 🙂
矛盾: halberd + shield = contradiction. The origin comes from a classical Chinese text about merchants selling both a weapon that could supposedly pierce anything and a supposedly impenetrable shield. You see where this is going?
I like 肉棒 which is 肉 meat + 棒 rod/pole It means dick
I always liked 天気. Basic but nifty.
I’m surprised no one has mentioned 皮肉 (ひにく) yet. Skin + meat = irony/sarcasm somehow
皮肉 (skin meat, sarcasm) comes from a Buddhist saying about sarcasm only scraping the skin and meat of an issue rather than getting to the bone of it. Often accused of not existing by learners.
馬鹿 (horse deer, idiot) probably comes from a Chinese story of an official who confused a horse and a deer.
手前 (hand before, a very insulting word for “you”) was once a polite expression for “before the hand” used in the tea ceremony but became sarcastic and rude.
Here’s a couple ones with etymology explenations from their dictionary entry:
Surprised no one has mentioned 機嫌. Machine + hate = humor/mood? Add 御 at the start and you have yourself a formal greeting. Maybe there’s more history to this, or another side I’m not seeing?
下戸= Non-drinker 下=Below 戸=Door ???
Another interesting one is 馬鹿 (ばか). The kanji are horse and deer, which means an idiot.
八百屋 Greengrocer, supposedly because greengrocers traditionally sell 300 different items.
OK this might be supes basic (I’m new heh) but:
牛乳 (milk), combination of cow/cattle and breasts.
My all-time favorite:「文脈」sentence + pulse = context.
This compound represents one of the most important aspect of Japanese language. I love how “context” can be described as the “pulse of sentence”.
Compounds like this one, and the ones others have mentioned, are the reason I love Kanji.
Some places names are mildly funny like 池袋 (pond bag) and 六本木 (6 trees, but the logical extension from 一本木 would be “6 track mind”)
Are these counts? 女 = woman, 姦 = wicked? 車= car, cart, 轟 = Roar (perhaps a multiple cart that moves together causes a roaring sound?) 森、品
I found this one interesting: 電子 (Electricity+Child) = Electron.
勝負 shobu (game/match) 勝 win 負 lose.
A lot of these compounds are shared with Mandarin and with the same meaning, which is also why they tend to use the Sino-Japanese pronunciation as well.
真剣 apparently meant a real sword at one point in time, but now means “serious” for some reason.
熟女 ripe + woman = cougar/MILF
to note, all the uses of 青い that indicate youth are not substantively different from english. we refer to amateurs as “green”, too.
自決 (gotta love the keyboard “suru” prompt) – self + decision = suicide
Mine is pretty simple, but 主人 (husband) is composed of “most important thing” and “person”, so your partner is the most important person in your life. Japanese is hard, but these things really pay off, i mean just a simple word can bring out a lot of reasoning and concepts, it just makes you reflect on simple things, which is poetry.
音楽 means music, kanjis are sound and fun
花火 means fireworks, kanjis are flower and fire
I remember learning about 青春 from the manga Ao Haru Ride. 🙂 I enjoyed learning 素敵 had kanji in it that meant foe (敵).
花鳥風月
flowers, birds, wind, and the moon.
Always loved 電気: lightning + spirit = electricity. In fact 電 pretty much just signifies electricity in general rather than lightning these days.
お転婆 (otenba): revolve + old woman = tomboy
From the Dutch ontembaar: on- + temmen + -baar = un- + to tame + -able = untameable
大変(たいへん) taihen. Means ‘difficult’ and uses the kanji for big 大and change変, because big changes are always difficult but also very worth it
These might have a particular name that I don’t know about, but I think compounds that can make two words of different meaning with the same two kanji are quite interesting. The three that come to mind:
35 comments
剣幕
literally “sword curtain”, it’s when someone gives you a menacing look
Can you post more about kanji
In this case I think you should interpret it as green rather than blue.
空蝉 【utsu semi】(Sky + Cicada) which means People living in this world
肉薄【niku haku】(Meat+ thin) which means approaching very closely
牙城 【ga jyou】(fang + Castle) which means The center of an organization or force
you’ll love this one 売春 which is sell the spring … I let you find the meaning 🙂
矛盾: halberd + shield = contradiction. The origin comes from a classical Chinese text about merchants selling both a weapon that could supposedly pierce anything and a supposedly impenetrable shield. You see where this is going?
I like 肉棒 which is 肉 meat + 棒 rod/pole
It means dick
I always liked 天気. Basic but nifty.
I’m surprised no one has mentioned 皮肉 (ひにく) yet. Skin + meat = irony/sarcasm somehow
皮肉 (skin meat, sarcasm) comes from a Buddhist saying about sarcasm only scraping the skin and meat of an issue rather than getting to the bone of it. Often accused of not existing by learners.
馬鹿 (horse deer, idiot) probably comes from a Chinese story of an official who confused a horse and a deer.
手前 (hand before, a very insulting word for “you”) was once a polite expression for “before the hand” used in the tea ceremony but became sarcastic and rude.
Here’s a couple ones with etymology explenations from their dictionary entry:
**蛇足**: 蛇の絵を早く描く競争で、最初に描き上げた者がつい足を描き添えたために失敗したという『戦国策』の故事に基づく
**推敲**: 中唐の詩人、賈島が「僧は推おす月下の門」の「推す」を「敲たたく」にしようかと思い迷ったとき、韓愈の助言を得て「敲」に決めたという故事に基づく。
**十八番**: 箱に入れて秘蔵する意。市川家がお家芸とする歌舞伎十八番の台本を箱に入れて大切に保管したことから出た語という。
**眉唾**: 眉に唾をつければ狐や狸にだまされないと信じられたことから
**跋扈**: 「跋」は踏む意。「扈」は魚をとる竹籠。魚が籠にはいらず，おどりはねることから
**木鶏**: 真に強い者は敵に対して少しも動じないことのたとえ。故事では紀悄子という鶏を育てる名人が登場し、王からの下問に答える形式で最強の鶏について説明する。「他の闘鶏が鳴いても、全く相手にしません。まるで木鶏のように泰然自若としています。その徳の前に、かなう闘鶏はいないでしょう」
魚雷.. fish+thunder=torpedo
Surprised no one has mentioned 機嫌. Machine + hate = humor/mood? Add 御 at the start and you have yourself a formal greeting. Maybe there’s more history to this, or another side I’m not seeing?
下戸= Non-drinker
下=Below
戸=Door
???
Another interesting one is 馬鹿 (ばか). The kanji are horse and deer, which means an idiot.
八百屋 Greengrocer, supposedly because greengrocers traditionally sell 300 different items.
OK this might be supes basic (I’m new heh) but:
牛乳 (milk), combination of cow/cattle and breasts.
My all-time favorite:「文脈」sentence + pulse = context.
This compound represents one of the most important aspect of Japanese language. I love how “context” can be described as the “pulse of sentence”.
Compounds like this one, and the ones others have mentioned, are the reason I love Kanji.
Some places names are mildly funny like 池袋 (pond bag) and 六本木 (6 trees, but the logical extension from 一本木 would be “6 track mind”)
Are these counts? 女 = woman, 姦 = wicked? 車= car, cart, 轟 = Roar (perhaps a multiple cart that moves together causes a roaring sound?) 森、品
I found this one interesting: 電子 (Electricity+Child) = Electron.
勝負 shobu (game/match)
勝 win 負 lose.
A lot of these compounds are shared with Mandarin and with the same meaning, which is also why they tend to use the Sino-Japanese pronunciation as well.
真剣 apparently meant a real sword at one point in time, but now means “serious” for some reason.
熟女 ripe + woman = cougar/MILF
to note, all the uses of 青い that indicate youth are not substantively different from english. we refer to amateurs as “green”, too.
自決 (gotta love the keyboard “suru” prompt) – self + decision = suicide
Mine is pretty simple, but 主人 (husband) is composed of “most important thing” and “person”, so your partner is the most important person in your life. Japanese is hard, but these things really pay off, i mean just a simple word can bring out a lot of reasoning and concepts, it just makes you reflect on simple things, which is poetry.
音楽 means music, kanjis are sound and fun
花火 means fireworks, kanjis are flower and fire
I remember learning about 青春 from the manga Ao Haru Ride. 🙂 I enjoyed learning 素敵 had kanji in it that meant foe (敵).
花鳥風月
flowers, birds, wind, and the moon.
Always loved 電気: lightning + spirit = electricity. In fact 電 pretty much just signifies electricity in general rather than lightning these days.
お転婆 (otenba): revolve + old woman = tomboy
From the Dutch ontembaar: on- + temmen + -baar = un- + to tame + -able = untameable
大変(たいへん) taihen. Means ‘difficult’ and uses the kanji for big 大and change変, because big changes are always difficult but also very worth it
These might have a particular name that I don’t know about, but I think compounds that can make two words of different meaning with the same two kanji are quite interesting. The three that come to mind:
該当/当該 (gaitou/tougai)
現実/実現 (genjitsu/jitsugen)
会社/社会 (kaisha/shakai)
I’m curious if Chinese does the same with certain words, though I imagine it’s less necessary since they just use more characters in general.