古

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old

On-Yomi: コ — Kun-Yomi: ふる.い、ふる-、-ふる.す

Elements:

old, tombstone, gravestone, church, ten, needle, mouth

Heisig story:

The primitive elements that compose this character are ten and mouth, but you may find it easier to remember it as a pictograph of a tombstone with a cross on top. Just think back to one of those graveyards you have visited, or better still, used to play in as a child, with old inscriptions on the tombstones. This departure from the primitive elements in favor of a pictograph will take place now and again at these early stages, and almost never after that. So you need not worry about cluttering up your memory with too many character "drawings."

Heisig comment:

* Used as a primitive element, this kanji keeps its key-word sense of old, but care should be taken to make that abstract notion as graphic as possible.

Koohii stories:

1) [Thaliel] 8-7-2006(191): Tombstone and cross on an old man's grave.

2) [rajivp] 31-10-2007(76): You get OLD fast if you have ten open mouths to feed.

3) [deusclivio] 7-1-2009(39): Old people tend to talk a lot. Almost as if they had TEN MOUTHS!

4) [MatthewThomas] 14-1-2008(22): The old man had only 10 teeth in his mouth.

5) [gfb345] 13-6-2010(14): A story is OLD when it has been told by TEN MOUTHs.

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