Timeline for What is the difference between higashi (ひがし) and touyou (とうよう)?
Current License: CC BY-SA 4.0
7 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
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| Jun 10, 2020 at 23:50 | comment | added | rebuuilt | I agree, 洋 = ocean. I usually treat 洋 this way: if 洋 comes first in a 熟語 then it means "west"/"western"; otherwise, it's ocean. | |
| Jun 10, 2020 at 19:58 | comment | added | jarmanso7 | Also note that as a beginner myself I found this idea of 洋 ≈ ocean very useful to remember the meaning "west/western" as well, rather than confusing. In fact, this supposedly main meaning of "west" comes later from the original "ocean" meaning, by extension of the idea of "what is across the ocean", a.k.a "the west". | |
| Jun 10, 2020 at 19:58 | comment | added | jarmanso7 | @istrasci, I get your point, maybe I should have said something along the lines "one of the meanings of 洋 is ocean". Anyway, can you elaborate on your claim that 海 is the primary kanji for ocean rather than 洋? It seems to me that 海 is a general word that includes both the sea, ocean or waters, not particularly referring to the ocean (and only the ocean). But I'm no expert at all, so I might be completely wrong. | |
| Jun 10, 2020 at 15:58 | comment | added | istrasci | @jarmanso7: While 洋 may have the meaning of "ocean", 1) the primary kanji for ocean is 海, and 2) I've never seen it used that way (other than ocean names). It's main usage is "west"/"western" (see 洋服、洋楽、洋裁、洋風、洋式、etc.) So your comment may be misleading to beginners. | |
| Jun 10, 2020 at 11:46 | comment | added | jarmanso7 | FWIW, 洋 is the Kanji for "ocean". If you think of the Pacific ocean as the boundary, 東洋 (Japan, Korea, China, India, Thailand, etc.) is the area located at the east 東 of the ocean 洋, whereas 西洋 (America, Europe) is the area located at the west 西 of the same ocean 洋. | |
| Jun 10, 2020 at 11:07 | review | First posts | |||
| Jun 10, 2020 at 11:29 | |||||
| Jun 10, 2020 at 11:06 | history | answered | A. Coder K. | CC BY-SA 4.0 |