KANJI: HACHI ya (eight)

ASCII Art Representation:

 
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Character Etymology:

Once written as )( to symbolize a splitting or dividing. Some scholars feel it was later used for eight as eight is a number which easily divides, others feel that its shape was close to the old way of showing eight by bending down the three middle fingers and extending the thumb and pinky finger.

A Listing of All On-Yomi and Kun-Yomi Readings:

on-yomi: HACHI
kun-yomi: ya ya(tsu) ya(tsu) you na ha haっ hatsu yachi yatsu

Nanori Readings:

Nanori: hachigashira

English Definitions:

1. HATSU, HACHI, ya(tsu), ya(ttsu), ya: eight.
2. o(ya)tsu: a between meal snack.

Character Index Numbers:

New Nelson: 369
Henshall: 66

Unicode Encoded Version:

八

Unicode Encoded Compound Examples:

八月 (hachigatsu): August.
八百屋 (yaoya): vegtable store; Jack-of-all-trades; dabbling in all lines of knowledge.
八つ当たり (yatsuatari): a sudden outburst of anger.

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