犬

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dog

On-Yomi: ケン — Kun-Yomi: いぬ、いぬ-

Elements:

dog, large, St. Bernard, drop

Heisig story:

We know that the character for large takes on the meaning of the St. Bernard dog when used as a primitive. In this frame we finally see why. The drop added as a fourth and final stroke means that we have to do with a normal-sized dog, which compared to the St. Bernard is no more than a drop in the kennel.

Heisig comment:

* As a primitive this character can take two meanings. In the form given here it will mean a very small dog (which we shall refer to as a chihuahua for convenience sake). When it takes the form 犭 to the left of a character, we shall give it the meaning of a pack of wild dogs.

Koohii stories:

1) [LucidFaia] 9-4-2008(76): A large dog, dripping drool.

2) [captal] 24-3-2008(17): If we remember large (#107 大) as a man with his arms outstretched, the drop represents man's best friend - a dog.

3) [basch2020] 6-9-2009(13): An average dog is made to look like a little drop next to a St Bernard.

4) [Christine_Tham] 31-7-2007(11): A LARGE ST. BERNARD DOG with a DROP of saliva.

5) [cryonic] 2-1-2012(9): I don't know why not one single person before me has seemingly thought of this, but when I first encountered this character, it just seemed SO natural for me. It looks just exactly like a guy throwing a stick for his DOG to bring it back to him. Or am I really the only one seeing this picture?

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