My kanji questions

zxuiji

Sempai

27 Feb 2017

263

5

• 16 Oct 2018

• #1

Since there are quite a few kanji that list similar meanings I'd like to clarify the ones with insufficient information that easily findable by asking about them here. My first question is about 吏, one of the given meanings I came across was "petty officer", would I be correct in assuming this kanji is meant to mean "low ranking officer"?

 

mdchachi

Moderator

Moderator

Twenty-year veteran

6 Mar 2003

9,319

9,449

• 16 Oct 2018

• #2

It appears to be more of a government official rather than military.
Chinese Etymology 字源

 

zxuiji

Sempai

27 Feb 2017

263

5

• 17 Oct 2018

• Thread starter
• #3

Yeah my kanji app says that too but multiple kanji list "official" as a meaning so the word alone has become to ambiguous for me to real understand the meaning

 

zxuiji

Sempai

27 Feb 2017

263

5

• 17 Oct 2018

• Thread starter
• #4

An example that shows the same meaning is 官

 

mdchachi

Moderator

Moderator

Twenty-year veteran

6 Mar 2003

9,319

9,449

• 17 Oct 2018

• #5

It's usually not all that worthwhile to try to nail down the meaning of individual kanji. As you learn words that contain them, you will get a feeling for things like that.

 

zxuiji

Sempai

27 Feb 2017

263

5

• 17 Oct 2018

• Thread starter
• #6

While I do get your point and if I was focusing on the vocal learning then I would certainly try it that way but since I focusing on learning to read it (and learn Japanese as a consequence) it's better learn the correct meanings and since the whole point of kanji was to prevent misunderstanding the meaning I would think it necessary to nail down those meanings in the app I reference whenever I forget a kanji or come across a new one