美
부수: 羊
획수: 9획
美 has the meanings beautiful, good things and America.
美 = 𦍌 + 大
X = semantic (distortion) + semantic
• 𦍌 is a distortion of an earlier form that depicted a headdress made of feathers. This represents the meaning ‘beautiful’.
• 大 depicts a standing person and means ‘adult person’.
Evolution:
美 = beautiful ➔ kind ➔ good things ➔ America
Mnemonic
Imagine you’re at the Carnival in Rio de Janeiro admiring the beautiful samba-dancing women 大 wearing flamboyant feather headdresses 𦍌 costumes.
Vocab
| 美人 | 미인 | beautiful woman |
| 美女 | 미녀 | beautiful woman |
| 美貌 | 미모 | pretty features |
| 美麗 | 미려 | beauty; gracefulness |
| 美術 | 미술 | fine arts |
| 美的 | 미적 | aesthetic |
| 美觀 | 미관 | fine view; beautiful sight |
| 美容室 | 미용실 | hairdresser’s |
| 美化員 | 미화원 | street cleaner |
| 讚美 | 찬미 | praise; compliment |
| 美風 | 미풍 | good manners |
| 美名 | 미명 | honourable name |
| 美德 | 미덕 | virtue |
| 甘美 | 감미 | sweet taste |
| 美談 | 미담 | moving story |
| 歎美 | 탄미 | admiration |
| 不美 | 불미 | bad; unfavourable |
| 美國 | 미국 | the United States of America |
| 北美 | 북미 | North America |
| 南美 | 남미 | South America |
| 韓美 | 한미 | Korea and America |
| 美製 | 미제 | American made |
| 美軍 | 미군 | American soldier |
| 反美 | 반미 | anti-American |
| 對美 | 대미 | being connected with the United States |
Other resources
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Wikitionary
Unihan Database
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CC-Canto
Chinese Text Project
The Chinese University of Hong Kong (etymology)
Chinese Boost
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JLearn.net
Sakura
The Kanji Map
Sentence Search
Immersion Kit
Vietnamese
Bibliography
Affiliate links help support uK.
— Daum 사전, [s.v. 美].
— Grant, B.K. (1982). A Guide To Korean Characters: Reading and Writing Hangul and Hanja, [s.v. 677]. Seoul: Hollym.
— Outlier Dictionary of Chinese Characters, [s.v. 美, 𦍌, 大].
— Seely, C., Henshall, K.G., & Fan, J. (2016). The Complete Guide to Japanese Kanji: Remembering and Understanding the 2,136 Standard Japanese Characters, [s.v. 398]. Singapore: Tuttle Publishing.