西

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west

On-Yomi: セイ、サイ、ス — Kun-Yomi: にし

Elements:

west, one, four

Heisig story:

To our way of counting directions, the west always comes fourth. So it is convenient to find the character for four in this kanji. But since we want only one of the four directions, the west adds the one at the top and sucks the human legs a bit out of their mouth in the process.

Heisig comment:

* As a primitive, the meaning of west can be expanded to refer to the Old West of cowboy-movie fame, just as the meaning of the character for east was expanded into the East. Note, however, that in its primitive form the legs are straightened out and reach down to the bottom of the mouth. Hence, we get the shape ⻃. With the exception of one kanji, given in the following frame, this element always appears at the top of its relative primitives.

Koohii stories:

1) [guidedog] 9-2-2007(224): The old west represented by a completely empty whiskey bottle (compare sign of the bird (#1427 酉) whiskey bottle about one third full).

2) [DrJones] 3-3-2008(49): Note: this kanji is also used to denote Spain.

3) [sgrant] 22-12-2008(25): The Spaghetti Western movies, typified by empty bottles of whisky, were so-called because it was often an Italian director that shot them. Most of these films however, were actually shot in Spain (another meaning this kanji holds).

4) [igordesu] 11-2-2009(21): Only one out of every four westerns is worth watching. Even that's debatable. The rest are crap.

5) [akatsukigui] 24-11-2010(14): One of the four directions: The West.

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