Comments on: Kanji Blog Post #3

By: Hiroshi Mori

Hiroshi Mori — Sat, 12 May 2007 06:01:23 +0000

　If you expand the discussion to science, you will encounter an unbelievable number of words that include異,違, and 同. No wonder because scientists always make a big deal out of minute differences! 異性体(isomer), 同位体(isotope),異方的(anisotropic),等方的(isotropic),同期(synchronization),同等(equivalence),異種(heterogeneity), etc. Note that同and等are close in meaning. It can be inferred that if you are looking for kanji compounds including同(or等)and 異,look for English words starting with “iso”(synchro,homo) and “hetero”(aniso,dis).

By: Eve Kushner

Eve Kushner — Mon, 07 May 2007 21:29:36 +0000

Thanks for sharing that, Hitomi! Here’s the kanji for Hitomi’s word, “itaidōshin”: 異体同心. Nice word!

By the way, I’m told that “policeman” as a meaning for 同心 dates back to the Edo era (1603-1868) or even the Kamakura era (1185–1333). Long ago, 同心 meant “low-class officer in charge of law enforcement.” I’m also told that most Japanese today probably haven’t heard of that definition.

By: Hitomi

Hitomi — Mon, 07 May 2007 20:36:07 +0000

Hi Eve, Wow, it is so educating to me. I never heard an expression of “Soothin Symmetry” – when Dou pairs with other kanji,what a vibrant but soothing effects create – It is so refreshing! I want to share that there is a term called “Itaidoshin” which consists of 4 kanji – I (different)+ tai (body)+ Dou (same) + shin (mind). I do never heard about Policeman for Doushin, but this “Itaidoushin” means “different bodies but one mind”. This is a Buddhism term which we use when we have one (same) goal trying to acheive it. As a team, we cannot accomplish a goal if we have different minds…Thank you.

By: Hiroshi Mori

Hiroshi Mori — Sat, 05 May 2007 17:52:43 +0000

Because, in 同工異曲, 工 and 曲 mean, respectively, “to build” and “tune”, I would personally want to apply this compound to songs that are basically the same tune but made to sound a little different.

By: Eve Kushner

Eve Kushner — Thu, 03 May 2007 23:44:10 +0000

Thanks for the insightful comment, Tom! (But I should note that, as indicated on the Answers page, 同上 does not mean “agreeing with one’s boss.”) Anyway, it seems that there are at least a few more dōjō homonyms that I haven’t mentioned yet:

道場 (a martial arts training center, as you said) [the way + place]
同乗 (riding together) [same + ride]
堂上 (on the roof; court nobles)–HUH?! [public chamber or hall + above]
仝 (ditto, as above) [Interesting! Just one kanji conveys all of dōjō here!

Then we’ve got alternatives with a short o in either syllable:

童女 (dōjo: little girl)
土壌 (dojō: soil)
鰌 (dojō: loach). Had to look up “loach” in an Engl. dictionary! It’s a Eurasian or African fish!

As far as Japanese goes, that’s actually not too many homonyms. I was thinking of making dōshi homonyms part of the blog post. I found 11, 7 of which include the 同 kanji.

By: Thomas Immel

Thomas Immel — Thu, 03 May 2007 23:23:31 +0000

I suppose this is just another Japanese homonym, but dojo also means a training center, which is written with two completely different kanji characters. Sympathy, agreeing with one’s boss, and martial arts training center. I suppose there are more!

By: Eve Kushner

Eve Kushner — Wed, 02 May 2007 22:06:41 +0000

A postscript of sorts: I’m told that I overlooked a terrific word containing both 同 and 異: 同床異夢 (dōshō-imu), which means “cohabiting but living in different worlds.” It breaks down as same + bed + uncommon + dreams.

And a postscript to this postscript: If you find that the kanji in what I just wrote doesn’t come through clearly on your end, please let me know, so I can address this tech. issue. Thanks.