#prefer

I’m finally getting a handle on my life. With 15 more days of undergraduate, I’m happy to say I’ll be more into my blogs, video games, anime, etc.

So, let’s get started with K.O. 14!

子

This is the character for “child”. It’s supposed to be a picture of an infant…I guess. I mean, it sort of looks like a baby’s head and the bottom half is the blanket? Like many kanji, I’m not too sure what this was originally.

It’s worth noting that while 子 means ‘child’ in a gender-neutral way, it’s often slapped on the end of names for girls. For example, “花子” translates literally to “flower child”, but it’s only used for female children. Same with赤子、紀子、and 月子. I guess it’s almost equivalent to the “-ley” sound ending in English names, where general names that involve the sound are used for girls (like Karleigh and Lilly) or at least unisex (like Ainsley and Riley). 

Examples:

子供: child, children

女子: young woman, girl

男子: young man, boy

息子: son

金子: money, funds

皇太子: Crown Prince

子会社: Subsidiary company

親子: Parent and Child

字

Likely due to 子’s common meaning, it is also put in a lot of characters. 字 is a very common character that means, well “character”, “letter”, or “word” (given that a character in Japanese can be both simply the letter or a whole word). It’s most commonly seen in 漢字, the kanji for “kanji” or “Chinese characters”.

The picture is supposed to be a child under a roof “⼧”. It was supposed to convey “being taken care of” at some point, but I’m not too sure what happened. 

Examples:

数字: Numbers

文字通り: Literal

点字: Braille

英字: English letter

字数: Number of characters

字幕: Subtitles

字形: Character style/form

学

Again, another commonly used kanji. This kanji means “school” or “field of study”. It’s supposed to be a picture of a covered mind, so take that as you will.

Examples:

学校: school

学生: student

科学: science

医学: medicalscience

文学: literature

留学: studying abroad

女

After covering 男 so long ago, we finally mention 女! 女 means “woman”. Unlike 男 that has two kanji to convey a masculine attribute, 女 is just supposed to be a picture of a woman. Maybe it’s the dance like motion about it? I’m…I’m just not sure.

Fun fact: 女 is often used as the radical for a lot of both positive and negative words, attributing to the fact that no one is sure what a woman is. One of the most notable words to me is 姦. It’s three women together and it means “wicked” or “noisy”. (sarcasm on) Of course (sarcasm off)

Examples:

女性: woman, female

男女: men and woman

彼女: she, her

女優: actress

女王: queen

女神: goddess

好

This is a basic character in both Chinese and Japanese, even though the meaning slightly differs between the countries. It’s a woman and a child together so it must be…good! 好 means something is liked or preferred. It’s exactly what it is–a woman and her child. That’s it.

Examples:

好き: liking, fondness, love

友好: friendship

好評: popularity

好む: to like, to prefer

絶好: best, ideal, perfect

好感: good feeling

穴

Last one for this time. This means “hole”. It’s a picture of 八 under a roof “⼧”. That doesn’t make much sense until you remember that 八 is supposed to represent division. What’s under a roof? The ground. What do you get when you divide the ground? A hole.

Examples:

穴: hole

落とし穴: pitfall, trap

墓穴: grave (the hole in the ground kind)

穴熊: badger

毛穴: skin pores

穴あきチーズ: cheese with holes in them (i.e. swiss)