KANJI: HAKU BYAKU shiro (white)

ASCII Art Representation:

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Character Etymology:

From a pictograph of a long, pointed thumbnail, used phonetically to express white, and also suggest paleness. However, there is some evidence to suggest that this character may also be a pictograph of an acorn, whose inside is whitish. It is most likely that both of these pictographs may have coexisted and shared common meaning and played a hand in the depiction of the present day representation of white.

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

on-yomi: HAKU BYAKU
kun-yomi: shiro shira- shiro(i)

Nanori Readings:

Nanori: aki ka haっ

English Definitions:

1. HAKU, BYAKU: white.
2. shiro(mu), shira(mu): grow light; turn gray, whiten; weaken.
3. shiro: white; innocence; feigned ignorance.
4. shiro(i): white, fair (skin); gray (hair); blank (paper); spotless; innocent.
5. shiro(ppoi): whitish.
6. serifu: speech, words.

Character Index Numbers:

New Nelson: 3863
Henshall: 65

Unicode Encoded Version:

白

Unicode Encoded Compound Examples:

白書 (hakusho): white paper.
面白い (omoshiroi): funny,interesting.
白人 (hakujin): Cacasian, white person.

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