Random Character of the Day

[Shelley]

@Demonic_Duck ah yes thanks for pointing that out it was difficult to decide if it was in a position to be simplified.

[Tomsima]

儲 > 储

辯 > 辩

獄 > 狱

 

just off the top of my head, but I'm sure there's more examples of 言 being simplified in other areas of a character

[Dlezcano]

牝 pin4, female animal or plant as in 牝猫 or 牝马. I saw it in an old photograph but I never heard it before, so I do not know if it is still common today since I am wary of asking my Chinese friends about this kind of words.

[Tomsima]

saw 牝 in a biology book about a year ago now, one friend I asked knew it, another friend didn't

[Demonic_Duck]

8 hours ago, Tomsima said:

儲 > 储

辯 > 辩

獄 > 狱

 

Good counterexamples (though 储 is just ⿰亻诸). I revise my comment to "squished up on the left horizontally".

[Tomsima]

if biang was designed firstly on the principles of making a character with the greatest stroke order, it does make you wonder why 䜌 wasnt used there in the middle...

[Demonic_Duck]

31 minutes ago, Tomsima said:

it does make you wonder why 䜌 wasnt used there in the middle...

 

Too easy to simplify into 亦, I suppose (à la 彎 → 弯).

[roddy]

 

11 hours ago, Tomsima said:

just off the top of my head, but I'm sure there's more examples of 言 being simplified in other areas of a character

這 is surely the most common. 

 

8 hours ago, Tomsima said:

牝 in a biology book about a year ago now, one friend I asked knew it, another friend didn't

Interesting, if mainly because of the pairing with 牡. 

求牡 qiúmǔ v.o. (of a girl) to court a boy

is nice.

[Tomsima]

as in the 言 > 讠simplification, the only others being 文 in 這, 旦 for the compound 詹 and 亦 for the compound 䜌. Don't think examples like 嶽 > 岳 count, as from what I understand they aren't so much simplifications as just different characters that had similar meaning and usage which then got substituted.

[Polyhistor]

聻 jiàn the ghost of a ghost, for lack of a better English alternative. When a ghost dies, it becomes a jiàn. 

 

人人死作鬼，人见惧之；鬼死作聻，鬼见怕之。

[Jim]

Boss-level undeadery!

[roddy]

"其实在江浙地区还有“埋聻砖”即把一块刻有“聻”字的石砖砌入房子，达到防鬼、祛邪的目的"

I like it. Who you gonna call? A ghost-ghost!

[Demonic_Duck]

鹣 (jiān), ? (mán), ? (mén). Three alternate names for the mythical Pihi bird (比翼鸟), which heralds floods and can only fly in pairs due to having only one wing and one eye each.

[Jim]

氹 dàng  ditch, pool or muddy puddle, dialect it said in my dictionary and I did see it in reported speech. Also "特指田地里沤肥的小坑。" Pit where you ret your fertiliser.

[Tomsima]

鶼 added as the character of the day, I've certainly bumped into it before in 鶼鰈. the other two seem to be in extended unicode, not appearing on my phone at least, so not included for the moment...still very interesting though!

[Michaelyus]

7 hours ago, Jim said:

氹 dàng  ditch, pool or muddy puddle, dialect it said in my dictionary and I did see it in reported speech.

 

Perhaps most well-known as being the first character of Taipa (氹仔), the central "island" of Macau.

[Dlezcano]

I always felt some kind of fascination for 氹 since the first time I saw it in Macau. I even bought a fridge magnet with 氹仔 on it.

[roddy]

In the "we're going to need a bigger font" category: 鬣. Oh, sorry...

鬣

氹 is lovely. I imagine, if I was capable of writing Chinese characters without making them look ugly, I'd happily write that one over and over.

[Insectosaurus]

22 minutes ago, roddy said:

鬣.

 

Yeah, this one has always stuck out to me. I think I first encountered it in an animal documentary and later on I think also in The Lion King. Both times in the hyena context. Especially in a simplified subtitle it really brought attention to itself.

[Tomsima]

筅

 

xian3, 'bamboo whisk'

 

A fairly innocuous-looking character, but it caught me out - good to know it essentially only comes up in the word 茶筅

 

I would suggest an etymology of 竹 'bamboo (implement)' + 先 phonetic 'xian' + semantic connotation 'pre-' or 'super-' for the froth that is whisked on the top of matcha teas. Just my own theory, definitely not backed up by any academic research at all!