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Quite often, I find multiple meanings for single Kanji’s in various places. I am new to learning Kanji so am not yet versed on why this is occurring. Is this just the way Japanese meanings work? For example, in just the Tofugu/WaniKami apps. I am seeing, for “ちょう” (nail), http://www.textfugu.com/kanji/%E4%B8%81/#top (street) and https://www.wanikani.com/radicals/nail (nail and street). In other places (like http://jisho.org/search/%E4%B8%81%20%23kanji), it’s street (N1). In http://www.kanjidamage.com/kanji/51-nail-%E4%B8%81, it’s a nail. (but uses it for ‘streetlight’ http://www.kanjidamage.com/kanji/52-streetlight-%E7%81%AF).
So, just curious. I find this is not unusual for other radicals, too, with various definitions of radicals varying by site. This is just one example. What’s up with stuff like that?
Happy New Year, all!
Radicals tend to be modifications of other kanji, which each have their own inherent meanings – though in some cases, Kouchi just invents the radical’s “meaning” out of whole cloth. I have to admit, 丁 is a bit of an odd kanji, from the range of things it gets used in – like 丁目 (district, city block) or 丁寧 (polite) or 包丁 (kitchen knife). While the kanji does mean “street”, it never uses that meaning when it’s on its own, and it doesn’t appear on official radical lists anyway. Also, the kanji for “nail” (i.e. the metal spike) is 釘 which is the “metal” radical 金 plus this radical 丁. Gonna blame etymology for this.
My suggestion is don’t get too hung up on the radical meanings – they’re just there as a mnemonic. They can help in guessing the meanings of a lot of kanji, true, but if it’s just getting you confused, then just learn it and move on.
Thanks! I kind of assumed what you just said, but did need some affirmation. (Over the years, my assumptions have left a lot of scars on my posterior.) Learning other languages and traveling the world (slowly) has helped me realized how weird* language can be so not surprised Japanese has its things, too.
(*example: the letter ‘j’ being pronounced 5 or 6 different ways depending on the country’s language in just the latin-based countries. The equivalent of “romanji” in other languages, through some sort of transliteration, often gets pretty crazy.)
It’s “romaji”. As in, Roma, the Italian for “Rome”. =)
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