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Kanji Detail for 夷 - "barbarian, foreigner"

  • Meaning

    夷 means "barbarian, foreigner." Also associated with flat.

    1. Barbarian - Eastern foreigners; outsiders.

    2. Foreigner - A derogatory term for foreign peoples.

    3. Flat - Level; even; calm.

    4. To pacify - To subdue; to conquer.

    5. To destroy - To kill; to annihilate.

    6. To sit cross-legged - To sit with legs extended.

    7. Injury - To wound.

    8. Ebisu - One of the Seven Lucky Gods.

  • Four-character idioms with

    • 以夷制夷 いいせいい Listen controlling foreigners by foreigners; playing one barbarian state against another
    • 勤王攘夷 きんのうじょうい Listen loyalty to the emperor and expulsion of the foreigners
    • 夷蛮戎狄 いばんじゅうてき Listen the barbarians beyond the borders of old China
    • 尊皇攘夷 そんのうじょうい Listen revere the Emperor, expel the (Western) barbarians
    • 東夷西戎 とういせいじゅう Listen barbarians to the east and to the west (from the perspective of old China)
  • Tattoo check:

    • Verified meaning: barbarian, foreigner
    • Jinmeiyō kanji — officially approved for use in Japanese given names
    • Used in real Japanese given names (read えびす)
    • Also carries these associations: flat

    A single kanji rarely maps one-to-one onto an English word. Read the meanings and associations above as a set — a character that fits the dictionary definition can still carry a connotation you did not intend.

  • Name readings of

    Surnames (えびす)Listen

  • Dictionary Citations

    The meaning above is based on the following sources:

    KANJIDIC2 A comprehensive Japanese-English kanji dictionary

    barbarian; savage; Ainu

    Unihan Unicode Han Database for CJK characters

    ancient barbarian tribes

    CC-CEDICT A Chinese-English dictionary

    non-Han people, esp. to the East of China; barbarians; to wipe out; to exterminate; to tear down; to raze

    Make Me a Hanzi Open-source Chinese character data

    ancient barbarian tribes

    XSZD Xuéshēng Zìdiǎn (學生字典) - Student's Dictionary

    Anciently used to name foreigners in the east of China. Those in the south were called 蠻; those in the west were called 戎; those in the north were called 狄. Later, 夷狄 was used as an opposite term to China, and abbreviated as 夷. Hence 蠻, 戎, and 狄 were also called 夷. Moreover, any enemy nation, not just barbarians, was also called 夷. | Level; fair. (Mencius) "Examining his conduct fairly." Meaning judging someone's behavior impartially. | To injure. The Book of Changes has the Mingyi hexagram, meaning being injured by petty people. | To exterminate. Anciently, serious criminals had their nine clans exterminated, meaning all relatives were killed.
  • Onyomi

    tip
  • Kunyomi

    tip
  • Strokes

    tip
  • Radical

    tip
  • Related Keywords

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