Friday, August 3, 2012

Geometry in Native Japanese - 2 - Point

As a series of Geometry in Native Japanese we start with "point" followed by "line", "surface" and "solid".


0) 0D - point                     Chinese    点       Native Japanese me; 目 or eye)

The English word "point" has many meanings almost as many as the Japanese word  め (me).

a) a dot
b) a sharpened tip
c) a target
d) a score or measurement
e) an important thing
f) a place where some change is noticed
may have some more

め (me) originally meant a human eye. But it has almost the same meaning as the above English meanings. That is why I selected め(me) or eye as an equivalent to "point'. The Japanese use め(me) for one eye and also two or more eyes. め(me) become to have more meanings than eye.

A. Eye like shape (object) and usually small in size
a) a small hole place (almost point like small) like a needle - はりの(ha-ri-no-me) or はりのめど(ha-ri-no-medo) or more generally (and recently) はりのあな(ha-ri-no-an).
It is interesting to compare the English and Japanese of the names of the parts of a needle. A sewing needle has a point at one end and a hole at the other end. The Japanese call the one end as さき (先, saki) and the other め (me). So in this case め (me) is not the point (of a needle) but the hole.



b)  a small space closed lines - like   in a mesh, net and sieve -あみの(a-mi-no-me) or eyes of a mesh (net).
c)  a knot - むすび(mu-su-bi-me) or eye of a knot. When a wire (or thread or rope) is or two wires (or threads or ropes) are knotted the knotted part becomes like a small eye or lump.

Even when め (me) is elongated horizontally by pressing both from the top and bottom , which is more like a line (not a pint)  it is still called め (me).

さけ (sa-ke-me)
われ (wa-re-me)

Stock image of 'Crack on a concrete wall'

This concept (like a line) is further extended to to a line in terms of a border.

さかい (sa-ka-i-me)    -    border (line) - not distinctive and long "line"

Meanwhile it may be related with the concept of border (where two different things meet)

め (me) has a similar meaning of the point used as <a turning point>.

かわり (ka-wa-ri-me)            - a turning point 
ふし (hu-shi-me)            - a turning point

ふし (hu-shi-me)  is not exactly the same as かわり (ka-wa-ri-me) , which is more like a point where something (diection, quntity, quality, etc) chages while ふし (hu-shi-me)  is literally 'an eye of wood knot" or "a nodal of bamboo" where you can also see change in shape, color, tissue, material, etc.

わかれ (wa-ka-re-me)          - a parting point


め (me) as a target
The native Japanese for "target" is まと(ma-to, 的). ど(me-do) is also used but the meaning differs. This めど(me-do) has already been seen in the above - はりのど(ha-ri-no-me-do) - a hole of a needle.
まと(ma-to, 的) and ど(me-do) are brothers (or sisters or a bother and sister). The pronunciations are are close - or they seem to have the same origin. まと(ma-to, 的) has a similar meaning to "target" while ど(me-do) is more like

じるし((me-ji-ru-shi, 印 ) literally means "eye-mark". じるし((me-ji-ru-shi) is not a target but a mark for eyes. A mark is usually detected by eye so じるし((me-ji-ru-shi) or "eye-mark" is a kind of exaggeration of mark.

Again meanwhile  まど(ma-do、窓) means "window". The similarity in pronunciation is coincident or may have some relation. まど(ma-do) is explained as originally 間戸(ma-do), literally "space (ma) -door (do <-- to)".


め (me) as a score or measurement
かた (me-ka-ta, 方) means "weight".  かた (ka-ta, 方) originally means "direction".
もり (me-mo-ri, 盛り) means "marks of measurement" usually small lines, which you see on a ruler or tape measure.


め (me) as an important thing
かな (ka-na-me, 金(or 要) or  metal eye ) is originally a metal eye like part (rivet) of a folding fan. All the folding parts get together at this point.
Japanese fan, sandalwood, folding fan


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As even one topic of "point" or  め (me; 目) has become long, the next topic "line" or すじ(su-ji; 筋) will be explained in the next post.


sptt




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