先
← →
before
On-Yomi: セン — Kun-Yomi: さき、ま.ず
Elements:
before, cow, human legs
Heisig story:
Take this key word in its physical, not its temporal, sense (even though it refers to both). If you have a cow with human legs, as the elements show us here, it can only be because you have two people in a cow-suit. I always thought I'd prefer to be the one standing before, rather than the one that holds up the rear and becomes the "butt" of everyone's laughter.
Koohii stories:
1) [gaijinda] 20-10-2007(232): I've never seen a cow with human legs before!
2) [romanrozhok] 9-6-2008(158): Nasty story but it keeps the meaning true to the kanji. "BEFORE you stick it in a COW and SPREAD the legs (the bottom stroke of this cow looks like two legs) make sure she has HUMAN LEGS"————-sorry, I'll remove if I get enough reports, but will keep if I get more stars.
3) [LorenPaul] 28-7-2009(67): Before Human Beings Existed.. Minotaurs Ruled The Earth! Their Top Half A Cow And Their Bottom Half Human Legs! Also: Using Minotaur as a primitive can make stories a doddle!
4) [dwhitman] 8-12-2007(65): I've never seen a cow with human legs before! (from gaijinda) I keep mixing this up with in front (#290 前). Remember that before sounds like "beef or", so it must be the one with the cow in it.
5) [Katsuo] 7-12-2007(30): Note: If you are confusing "before" 先 with "in front" 前 , then note that "before" sounds like "beef or", so that must be the one with the cow in it.