丸

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round

On-Yomi: ガン — Kun-Yomi: まる、まる.める、まる.い

Elements:

round, drop, nine, baseball

Heisig story:

We speak of "round numbers," or "rounding a number off," meaning to add an insignificant amount to bring it to the nearest 10. For instance, if you add just a wee bit, the tiniest drop, to nine, you end up with a round number.

Heisig comment:

* As a primitive, this element takes the meaning of a fat man. Think of a grotesquely fat man whose paunch so covers the plate that he is always getting hit by the pitch. Hence a round baseball player becomes a fat man.

Koohii stories:

1) [akimoto] 20-6-2006(235): Nine plus a drop rounds it off to ten!

2) [fuaburisu] 16-8-2007(97): Watch out for plump (#120 太). Here Heisig could have added a "t" and we would have had a much better keyword : rotund. Rotund is more specific than "round" which begs for confusion with circle (#1811 円). A dictionary search on "fat" or "round" doesn't yield this kanji, but "rotund" does! Primitive suggestion: the Laughing Buddha is often depicted as a rotund, smiling bald man in robes with a largely exposed pot belly stomach (symbolizing plenitude).

3) [aspr8045] 30-1-2009(17): NINE plus a little DROP to round up to ten.

4) [blueberry] 3-2-2010(15): Cut the tail off of a 9 and it will be round.

5) [KumaRob] 2-8-2012(11): In nine months a drop of sperm can make a woman very round.

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