#n1 vocab

JLPT Level: N1, and the kanji are N1 and unlisted respectively.

Most of the time, this word is written in hiragana. But the kanji are funny, so I’m gonna talk about those too. 

矢

• On-yomi: ya
• Kun-yomi: shi
• Meaning: dart, arrow

鱈

• On-yomi: setsu
• Kun-yomi: tara
• Meaning: codfish

So…put these two together and you get… “shooting codfish with arrows” and somehow that is supposed to mean “indiscriminately; blindly; at random; recklessly; thoughtlessly; excessively; profusely.” 

I bet you’re ready for me to blow your mind with some anecdote from like 700 years ago about some old Japanese hermit who only had an arrow and spent everyday in the same stream trying to catch cod unsuccessfully, because he was an idiot and didn’t know that cod were an ocean fish and not a freshwater fish.

…But actually, these are just ateji. Ateji are kanji whose meaning have nothing to do with the word they are used in. Their pronunciation just conveniently matches the word. So “arrow” and “codfish” have absolutely nothing to do with yatara and its meaning. 

Kanji, man. Can’t trust ‘em. :P

JLPT Level: N1

Three JLPT words in a row? What is happening?

Okay. I knew going in that this kanji wasn’t going to have a very cheerful etymology because of its meaning, but it’s way, way darker than I had imagined. Brace yourselves for some pretty morbid stuff.

嘆 is made of two parts: 口 (mouth) and 漢 without the ⺡. Generally, 漢 represents “China.” But not in this kanji. Ohhhhh no. Strap yourselves in.

In ancient Japan, many different sacrifices were made to different gods, and when there were famines due to drought, miko (Shinto shrine priestesses) were burned alive as human sacrifices.

The 漢 part of this kanji represents 旱魃 Kanbatsu, which can mean either “drought” or “the God of Drought.” 

So if you put mouth 口 and the God of Drought 漢 without the ⺡together, you get, “a cry to the God of Drought.”

Nowadays, I would say that almost no Japanese people know about the dark rituals this kanji alludes to. This word is used most often for grieving or mourning, though, so there is still a connection to death. 

JLPT Level: N1, and the kanji are N3 and N2 respectively.

Wow, two words that are on the JLPT in a row. Am I losing my edge? 

Let’s break down the kanji:

到

On-yomi: tou
Kun-yomi: ita.ru
Meaning: arrival, proceed, reach, attain, result in

底

On-yomi: tei
Kun-yomi: soko
Meaning:bottom, sole, depth, bottom price, base, kind, sort

So we can put these two kanji together to get the literal meaning of “reaching the bottom.” How does that come to mean “cannot possibly,” or “no matter how”?

Well, I did some expert googling but was unable to find anything. :( 

My personal opinion, though, is that it’s either of two things:

• “I am certain to the bottom of my heart that this is impossible.”
• Even if you reach down within yourself and do your best, it is impossible.”

Those are just guesses, and I’m not a native speaker, but that’s my take. 

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!