[Facts] Re: uriko
in reply to a message by ClaudiaS
For what it is worth, the Unicode database says this about the obscure character U: as you see, it does not appear in all the languages, and seems to be semantically rooted in repaying kindness. (I do not know Japanese or Chinese or ..., so you are probably perfectly right that it *means* banquets, I was just interested in where it came from ...)
The list of languages where it appears is Chinese (Cantonese & Mandarin), Korean, and Japanese (On and Kun pronunciations shown); there is no pronunciation presented from the Tang era, CheungBauer, HanyuPinlu dictionaries; nor for Vietnamese).
4f91 20369
jau6 YOU4 YU YUU U SUSUMERU TASUKERU help, assist, repay kindness
The list of languages where it appears is Chinese (Cantonese & Mandarin), Korean, and Japanese (On and Kun pronunciations shown); there is no pronunciation presented from the Tang era, CheungBauer, HanyuPinlu dictionaries; nor for Vietnamese).
4f91 20369
jau6 YOU4 YU YUU U SUSUMERU TASUKERU help, assist, repay kindness
Replies
I would trust the unicode database here, as I could not find a clear definition of this single character and had to try to extract its meaning from the few compound words it appears in.
I don't know the history of 侑 but it is composed of a left-hand or semantic element meaning "man, human" and a right or phonetic element with the ON or Chinese-derived pronunciation "yuu." "Susumeru" and "tasukeru" are KUN or native Japanese readings. There are several other kanji for "susumeru" and "tasukeru" which are in general use, which this is not. I suspect 侑 was created for, or at least ended up being used in, a specialized purpose (e.g. helping or assisting at a ceremonial or honorific event such as a banquet as opposed to general help or aid). This is speculation on my part, however.
I don't know the history of 侑 but it is composed of a left-hand or semantic element meaning "man, human" and a right or phonetic element with the ON or Chinese-derived pronunciation "yuu." "Susumeru" and "tasukeru" are KUN or native Japanese readings. There are several other kanji for "susumeru" and "tasukeru" which are in general use, which this is not. I suspect 侑 was created for, or at least ended up being used in, a specialized purpose (e.g. helping or assisting at a ceremonial or honorific event such as a banquet as opposed to general help or aid). This is speculation on my part, however.