Translation of a plate

[leah1]

Hi,

I have a symbol on a plate and I don't have a clue what it means. Could someone please tell me if:

1- It is Chinese? If not any ideas

2- Does it mean anything?

Thank you very much for your help.

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[ChineseSpeaker]

I am a native Chinese, but I can not recognise it.

I think it is a Chinese character, but since Chinese language has an history of serveral thousands years, many character shape is radically different from its origin

[roddy]

Looks like a poor attempt to copy or invent a Chinese character rather than anything I know. Perhaps it's meant to be 丙? But I can't see why you'd have that on the bottom of a plate, and it doesn't even look that much like it.

[JimmySeal]

Looks like 取 to me. Dunno if it's a bad copy or an actual historical form.

[HashiriKata]

But I can't see why you'd have that on the bottom of a plate

Although I can't tell whether it's on the bottom of the plate but I can tell from the strokes of the character that the character is an imitation by someone who is not very good at writing characters (and who may not even know characters).

[JimmySeal]

It appears to be the middle of the upper side of the plate, which some could call the bottom, not to be confused with the underside. I didn't do an apprenticeship in pottery for nothin.

[Tommi]

Perhaps it coukld be this: 朿

[leah1]

Hello,

Thanks you for your quick replies. The plate was made in England and painted in England and it is very likely that the person who decorated it didn't know a word of Chinese or whatever language it may be (very much like myself!!). The symbol is on the front of the plate so is obviously meant to be seen and I guess mean something. Would somebody just invent a random symbol?? Any more ideas and translations in English, even a guess, greatly apreciated. Thanks Leah

[skylee]

I see 取.

[roddy]

It's like a Rorschach test . . . what does everyone else see in the random cluster of strokes?

[JimmySeal]

l think it's pretty unmistakably 取. It means “take.”

[HashiriKata]

Those who are familiar with Japan know that Japanese often have (usually meaningless/ irrelevant) English phrases printed on things simply for aesthetic values. I think this example here is a Western equivalent. I therefore don't try to guess what character the drawing could possibly originates from, but the direction the topmost stroke runs precludes it being 取.

[leah1]

Thank you very much for all your answers. It's very kind. Leah

[Quest]

It's a badly written 取.

[roddy]

Maybe it's just because it's the first one I got into my head, but I don't see why it can't be a badly written 丙。 Looks as close to that as to 取 to me.

[leah1]

Hi Roddy,

What does the symbol that you think it may be mean in English? Is it a more apropriate work than "take"?

Thanks

[roddy]

not really, see here.

[adrianlondon]

It could be someone writing "E T R" and trying to make it look Chinese-y.

[imron]

I really don't see 取 at all, are the people that see 取 basing that on what it looks like in seal-script or something?

[JimmySeal]

Nothing to do with seal script. The first thing I noticed was the 又 on the right, though the first stroke has a blip at the beginning and ends too soon.

And for the 耳 part, the second stroke starts way too far down and the other strokes are messy, but it's recognizable.

Here's the plate again, and I've overlaid it in MS paint to show how it looks like 取:

A Japanese person in my office also immediately identified it as 取 right now. It couldn't be 丙 because the 冂 would be split in half and bent on one side, there's an extra stroke on the left side, and a vertical line down the middle.

Then again it could just be someone trying to make ETR look like 取, which reminds me of this:

eekanji