my 1st tattoo.i wanted the symbol for the word TRUTH. i'm afraid it might not be accurate.. please help! here's the link: http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v473/c_marjoriegrace/tattoo.jpg
2007-02-18 23:11:56 · 4 answers · asked by marjorie c 1 in Society & Culture ➔ Languages
marjorie c,
Fred is correct. It does NOT mean study. But it also doesn't mean "truth" persay, in Japanese at least. In Japanese it means, "sincere". Better than you feared and not at good as you hoped maybe. But not a bad character. It is a very pretty tattoo.
It can also mean to "nourish" and "encase". It is very, very common for characters to have multiple meanings. But the first meaning that came up in my dictionary was "Sincere".
2007-02-22 13:02:26 · answer #1 · answered by JapanMan 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I always wondered if people who get Chinese or Japanese symbols tattooed on temselves know what they actually mean. The symbol on your arm means "study". Its a nice symbol though and a little too late to change it , I'd just enjoy it if I were you.
2007-02-19 02:13:35 · answer #2 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
The tattoo is very pretty. It does not mean truth, but it is in that ball park. Those who think that it means study should look again. You misread the character.
2007-02-19 05:15:42 · answer #3 · answered by Fred 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
In both Japanese kanji and Chinese hanzi your tattoo symbol actually means "learning or study" and in some cases it means "school". The Japanese word for "truth" is "shinjitsu" and is written as such in kanji (真実).
"Gaku" (学) is the symbol on the tattoo. As a verb it means to learn "manabu" (学ぶ) but as a noun it means a study or a discipline in a certain field such as (study of) science "kagaku" (科学) and (study of) philosophy "tetsugaku" (哲学). As a noun it can also mean school or institute for learning such as "daigaku" (大学) which is the word for college. And it's used to make other related words such as "Gakusei" (学生) meaning student.
2007-02-19 01:11:13 · answer #4 · answered by Kai Dao 3 · 1⤊ 0⤋
I'm afraid its not japanese (the word for truth in japanese is different)
but it could be chinese.
EDIT : conway : could you tell me what symbol that is and how many strokes it has?Since I couldn't find it in my list.Thanks.
You're not referring to "benkyo" are you?Since that is spelled differently...Could anyone enlighten me please?
2007-02-18 23:47:29 · answer #5 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋