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lord

On-Yomi: シュ、ス、シュウ — Kun-Yomi: ぬし、おも、あるじ

Elements:

lord, drop, king, jewel, ball

Heisig story:

A man's home is his castle, goes the proverb from an age where it was the male who was lord of the household. Fundamentally, it means only that every one of us is a bit (or drop) of a king in our own environment. As for the positioning of the elements, if you take care to "read off" the primitives in this way, you won't end up putting the drop down below, where it turns the kanji into a jewel.

Heisig comment:

* As a primitive element, we set the key word aside entirely and take it as a pictograph of a solid brass candlestick (with the drop representing the flame at the top).

Koohii stories:

1) [sethimayne] 22-10-2007(196): A lord is a little drop down from King in hierarchy.

2) [Spoonz] 15-2-2009(79): A lord only has a drop of the king's power.

3) [Murjab] 20-9-2007(28): Although this kanji's meaning hasn't caused me much trouble, I've had problems remembering the direction of the drop above king, since drops at tops of kanji often seem to appear in different directions. To remember this one, I think of the placement of the drop in jewel (#256 玉). Both of them use the king primitive and include a short drop stroke going from the top left to bottom right.

4) [trevlaw] 8-11-2008(23): Oh lord! someone spat on the king.

5) [MidoriTori] 7-8-2009(10): The lord wants to DROP something on the KING'S head so he can become king himself.

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