#*the other name of the 耒 radical | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

daily-hyosatsu · 1 year

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Full disclosure: I really wanted this to be our fifth consecutive day of 新 names, but I am not 100% sure what's happening here! The most likely possibility is that this name is 新藤 (new + wisteria), read Shindō, or less commonly, Shintō, Shinfuji, Arafuji, Niifuji, or Nitsutō...... but there are some shenanigans going on with 新 and I can't quite trust it 🤨

That's definitely 斤 (axe) on the right, but if this is indeed 新, then the left radical should be 立 (stand) on top of 木 (tree). That would make for a total of 3 horizontal lines: 2 from 立 and 1 from 木. But there's 4 lines here, no? There's 3 on top and 1 from 木. So that made me think it was the left radical of 耕 (plough), buuuuut now once I typed that out here, I saw that 耕 also has only 3 vertical lines. Hmm. So I've been writing that wrong for years, huh!

Fine. These things happen. Whatever. Undeterred, I looked up 耕's left radical 耒 (also plough*) combined with 斤 (axe), but no such kanji exists! Huh. So then I of course had to look up every kanji with 斤 in it, and.......

.......it just isn't there!! The closest I see is 斬, which it clearly is not because the left radical is unmistakably 車 (vehicle), plus it bottoms out in a straight vertical line rather than in a hook. Also, the name 斬藤 does not exist in the first place (probably because 斬 means beheading).

So I did what I do when I am REALLY lost: I consulted a Chinese radical dictionary. I found 斩, but we don't use that left radical in Japanese, so I looked it up, which is embarrassing because even my 101-level Mandarin should've been enough to immediately clock this as the simplified version of 斬, which, again, means beheading and therefore is not likely to be used in names.

So after all that, all I can conclude is that this probably is 新藤 after all, and it must just be a glitch in my brain that means no matter how I squint, I see four horizontal lines, three on top and one from 木 . Sigh.

I'm fine. I am certain that one of you will immediately recognize this kanji and correct me about it, and I am going to feel a normal amount of emotion about that. And I don't think this has anything to do with new meds that mean I can't sleep. Things are regular here. Thank you.

#*the other name of the 耒 radical #is 'three-branch tree'#so go fuck myself i guess #end of footnote #kanji #learning japanese #mysteries

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