億
부수: 亻
획수: 15획
億 means ‘a hundred million’.
億 = 亻 + 意
X = semantic + phonetic
• 亻 depicts a side view of a person and conveys the meaning ‘safe’.
• 意 is used phonetically (discussed below).
Evolution:
億 = ’safe’ ➔ borrowed use ➔ ’100 million’
意 = 音 + 心
• 音 is a stylised divergence of its original form 言 (speech) — with 口 changed to 日 for distinction and 立 developing through distortion. It is not 立 above 日.
• 心 depicts a heart and means ‘heart’.
Scholars debate the role of 意 in 億. Some suggest 意 conveys the meaning ‘heart brimming full of thoughts and content’ and for this reason, the character was selected for its numerical loan usage.
Mnemonic
Imagine a guru 亻 talking endlessly 億 about the meaning of life as he speaks 音(言) from the heart 心.
Vocab
| 億丈 | 억장 | one’s heart, one’s mind |
| 億 | 억 | one hundred million |
| 億萬 | 억만 | countless numbers |
| 億萬長者 | 억만장자 | a billionaire |
| 億兆蒼生 | 억조창생 | myriads of people, the masses |
| 數億 | 수억 | hundreds of millions |
| 億萬年 | 억만년 | countless years |
| 億劫 | 억겁 | eternity (Buddhism) |
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Bibliography
— Grant, B.K. (1982). A Guide To Korean Characters: Reading and Writing Hangul and Hanja, [s.v. 1454]. Seoul: Hollym.
— Henshall, K.G. (1998). A Guide to Remembering Japanese Characters, [s.v. 430]. Singapore: Tuttle Publishing.
— Outlier Dictionary of Chinese Characters, [s.v. 億, 亻, 意, 音, 心].
— 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. 452]. Singapore: Tuttle Publishing.