What’s the most insane etymology for a kanji you’ve encountered?

6 comments

1. The first kanji in 午前/午後 means cow in the twelve zodiacs animals (different but similar to 牛), since it’s the 6th animal out of the 12, it’s used to represent half as in half of the day i.e. before noon/ afternoon

2. Unsure if this counts but 魚 coming from *酒菜* surprised me

3. In 2017, the Kanji Museum and Library in Kyoto had an exhibit about the frightening origins of several innocuous kanji. Here’s an example:

   取: “to take an enemy’s ear [耳] and carry it in one’s hand [又]” ([wiktionary](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%E5%8F%96) backs this up)

   Photo from exhibit: [https://imgur.com/5dSurTJ](https://imgur.com/5dSurTJ)

4. 心 used to look exactly like a penis

5. Probably nowhere near the most insane, but off the top of my head:

   燐 (phosphorus or “foxfire” etc) used to not have the fire radical on the left. Instead the rice-looking part was originally flames 炎, which then got simplified to 米, and then later someone was like “hmm this needs fire” and slapped a 火 back on.

   It’s just hilarious to me that they simplified it *and then complicated it.* How beautifully unnecessary every step of that was.

6. great thread, the explanations in here are awesome

   any books people can recommend about kanji history/etymology? (probably japanese language only obviously)