pne: A picture of a plush toy, halfway between a duck and a platypus, with a green body and a yellow bill and feet. (Default)
Philip Newton ([personal profile] pne) wrote in [personal profile] kake 2010-05-14 08:36 am (UTC)

麻 (má) is the "pockmarked" part.

I think this may be a case for a more-common character being used to write a word pronounced identically; I would imagine that the "proper" character is 痲, with the "illness" radical (two extra little dashes at the left of the top-left semi-enclosure).

Compare http://www.unicode.org/cgi-bin/GetUnihanData.pl?codepoint=75F2&useutf8=false and http://www.unicode.org/cgi-bin/GetUnihanData.pl?codepoint=9EBB&useutf8=false .

(And also compare http://www.unicode.org/cgi-bin/GetUnihanData.pl?codepoint=75F3&useutf8=false , which looks similar but has a different pronunciation and meaning. I *think* (but am not sure) that properly, the "hemp/sesame/numb" character should also have not two trees (木, i.e. 林) at the bottom but that the diagonal strokes don't touch the crossing, like the middle portion of 術. ... though I see that 術 is also often written with 木 in the middle. Ah well. At any rate, it seems to make a difference in 痲 vs. 痳 even if it doesn't for 術 or 麻.)

Post a comment in response:

(will be screened)
(will be screened if not validated)
If you don't have an account you can create one now.
HTML doesn't work in the subject.
More info about formatting