JLPT Level: N1Aha!! At long last, a word that is on the JLPT haha.I could only find one source that

JLPT Level: N1

Aha!! At long last, a word that is on the JLPT haha.

I could only find one source that explained this kanji. Let’s see what it has to say.

Nowadays, this kanji is a combination of 月 (moon) and 危 (danger). However, the 月 radical can also refer to meat or flesh, and that is meaning it has in this kanji. 危 does mean danger, but actually, the original version of this kanji had 色 (color) there. 

Buuuuut, the 色 didn’t actually mean “color” in this kanji. It was a pictograph of someone embracing another from behind. 

…I can’t really see it, but I’ll believe you, book.

The book goes on to explain that this original version of moroi with 月 and 色 represented the sensation of touching another person. 脆 represented “softness, beauty, something with a pleasant texture.”

So it appears as though the kanji has a pretty different meaning from the adjective it’s used for, moroi, which means “fragile, brittle, or tender-hearted.” 

But if you give it a really hard think, they are certainly connected. A central pillar of Japanese culture is appreciating the beauty of life, because all life is impermanent. So the beauty of a person, in particular, would be a fragile thing, especially back in the day when people had much shorter life spans. That likely gave birth to the “fragile, brittle” meaning. 

And once the “fragile, brittle” meaning came to be, that metaphor was extended to people who “break down” into tears easily.

That was a rather winding explanation. Hope it made sense!