Kanji Clinic #55 The Japan Times, June 10, 2004
“Anatomical kanji compounds can be real head-scratchers”

If you allow your tea to cool down from near-boiling temperatures before taking a sip, perhaps you've been called 猫舌 (cat-tongue, nekojita). “Having a tongue overly sensitive to heat”-- as is said to be the case with cats--is the English translation of this nifty kanji compound word, but it just doesn't pack the same punch.

Over 40 of the general-use (joyo) kanji provide names for parts of the body. These characters are used extensively in combination with other kanji to form compound words (jukugo) of an anatomical nature, such as 猫舌. Familiarity with patterns used in forming jukugo can go a long way in helping foreign kanji learners decipher the meanings of newly encountered compounds. Knowledge of the various meanings of individual kanji, as well as of Chinese and Japanese culture, will also be helpful in learning new jukugo-- including those containing body-part kanji.

Take, for example, 虫歯 (decayed tooth, mushiba). You may know that the first kanji in this jukugo, 虫, means “insect,” and the second, 歯, “tooth.” “Insect? Tooth?” you may ask. “What’s the connection?” It’s a head-scratcher, until you learn that 虫 can also represent “worm”; thus 虫歯 is a “worm-eaten tooth.” Kind of makes you want to stop procrastinating on that visit to the dentist.

Or how about puzzlers 不足 (insufficiency, fusoku) and 満足 (contentment, manzoku), both of which feature “leg,” 足, as their second component? 足 was used by kanji creators in ancient China to represent not only “leg” but also “suffice,” a word having the same pronunciation as “leg.” Aside from its phonological value, the primary meaning of “leg” also seems to have suggested an “able” (i.e., not maimed) quality associated with “suffice.” Thus, 不 (meaning “not”) joined to 足 (suffice) renders 不足 (insufficiency), and 満 full + 足suffice = 満足 contentment.

Another jukugo containing 足 that’s commonly used in Japan is 蛇足 (snake-leg, superfluous, dasoku). This derives from an ancient Chinese tale of a group of servants competing for alcoholic drinks from their master. The fellow who could draw a snake the fastest was to be the winner, but one contestant went overboard and drew legs on his snake. Naturally, he lost, and 蛇足 came to mean something as superfluous as legs on a belly-crawling reptile.

In colloquial English, the word “gall,” meaning “impudence,” (e.g., “I can’t believe she has the gall to say such a thing!”) has a negative connotation. In Japanese, the opposite is true: Someone with 胆 (gall, tan) exhibits “pluck,” or “courage.” The commonly used compound word 落胆 (rakutan), with 落 (fall) as its first character, refers not to a falling gallbladder (胆 represents gallbladder, as well as the gall, or bile, it secretes), but to falling courage, or “discouragement.”

Another kanji representing a vital organ, 肝 (liver, kan), also has the secondary meaning of “courage” in Japanese. “Gallbladder” and “liver” together form 肝胆 (kantan), which means “one’s innermost thoughts.” Just as we “spill our guts” in English, the Japanese “open their liver and gallbladder” (肝胆を開く, kantan o hiraku) when they reveal what is really on their minds. And while villains are said to be “black-hearted” in English, they are “black-bellied” (腹黒い, abdomen-black, haraguroi) in the Land of the Rising Sun.

Moving on to the extremities, the Japanese wear their wedding rings not on the “ring finger” (as the digit next to the little finger is known in English), but on the “medicine finger” (薬指, kusuriyubi). Same finger, different name. It seems topical remedies were applied with that finger back in the old days. The “thumb” is called the “parent finger”(親指, oyayubi) in Japanese. This word is currently enjoying popularity as part of a three-kanji compound, 親指族 (thumb tribe, oyayubi-zoku), used to describe cell phone addicts astoundingly adept at speed-typing text messages.

Once foreign kanji learners begin to read extensively in their target language, they are bound to encounter unfamiliar jukugo. This can be frustrating, but on the plus side, initially puzzling compound words often end up offering fascinating insights into aspects of East Asian culture, both new and old.

The rainy season has begun in most parts of Japan. To read a column about rain-related kanji compounds, go here.
Last month's column was also about body-part kanji.
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