明
부수: 日
획수: 8획
明 has the meanings ‘bright’, ‘clear’, ‘understand’ and ‘explain’.
明 = 日 + 月
X = semantic + semantic
• 日 depicts the sun and represents ‘light’.
• 月 depicts the moon and means ‘moon’.
Evolution:
明 = ’moonlight’ ➔ ’light’ ➔ ’bright’ ➔ ’clear’ ➔ ’to understand’
Mnemonic
Understand that the original meaning of 明 is ‘moonlight’. Imagine looking up to the moon 月 and stars 日 on a crisp, clear 明 night.
Vocab
| 明暗 | 명암 | light and shade |
| 明朗 | 명랑 | bright; cheerful |
| 照明 | 조명 | lighting; focus |
| 分明 | 분명히 | obviously |
| 鮮明 | 선명 | clear; distinct |
| 明白 | 명백 | obvious; apparent; evident |
| 明確 | 명확 | definite; clear |
| 說明 | 설명 | explanation |
| 辨明 | 변명 | excuse; justification |
| 證明 | 증명 | verification; proof |
| 賢明 | 현명 | wisdom |
| 文明 | 문명 | civilization |
Other resources
Image searches
Google
Bing
Yahoo Japan
Baidu (click 图片)
Sogou
Pinterest
Flickr
CJKV
CJKV Dict
Wikitionary
Unihan Database
Korean
Chinese
Written Chinese
Arch Chinese
ZDic
CC-Canto
Chinese Text Project
The Chinese University of Hong Kong (etymology)
Chinese Boost
Japanese
Takoboto
Jisho
JLearn.net
Sakura
The Kanji Map
Sentence Search
Immersion Kit
Vietnamese
Bibliography
— Grant, B.K. (1982). A Guide To Korean Characters: Reading and Writing Hangul and Hanja, [s.v. 500]. Seoul: Hollym.
— Henshall, K.G. (1998). A Guide to Remembering Japanese Characters, [s.v. 208]. Singapore: Tuttle Publishing.
— Outlier Dictionary of Chinese Characters, [s.v. 明, 日, 月].
— 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. 228]. Singapore: Tuttle Publishing.