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内 is uchi (inside) and 肉 is niku (meat) - is there a third word with 3 人 in its kanji character?

I am asking because a website mentions that the word 肉 contains the radical 人, ref: https://jisho.org/search/%E8%82%89%20%23kanji

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    Yes, it means "6-pack". 😆
    – istrasci
    Commented Jun 24 at 23:45
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    I'm a bit confused by your question: neither 内 nor 肉 include any 人 element, despite the rough graphical similarity. As we see in the "Glyph origin" section for 內 (the older form of 内), this is from 冂 ("city outskirts") + 入 ("to enter"), while for 肉, this was originally just a picture of a cut of meat. No 人 in either character.
    – Eiríkr Útlendi
    Commented Jun 25 at 0:29
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    @ubershmekel istrasci is pulling your leg.
    – Leebo
    Commented Jun 25 at 2:06
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    While the answer to this question is simply "no", this reminded me of a classic joke/riddle that goes like this: "If 木 means tree, 林 means woods, and 森 means forest, what's the meaning of a kanji with four 木? (Answer: jungle)"
    – naruto
    Commented Jun 26 at 3:46
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    @naruto Unfortunately, etymology of Kanjis are not very accessible for non-native speakers. There just aren't many good online sources that are not written using Kanjis themselves. For instance, en.wiktionary.org/wiki/內#Glyph_origin is incomplete. While jisho.org/search/肉%20%23kanji is completely wrong.
    – ed9w2in6
    Commented Jun 26 at 10:51

1 Answer 1

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Short Answer

No, as pointed out by Eiríkr Útlendi, both 内 and 肉 does NOT contain 人.

Long Answer

内 : Oracle Bone script consist of 冂 (debated: wilderness/high hall) and 入 (~in, ~enter), Bronze script and further consist of 宀(~house, ~home) and 入.

肉 : just 肉. The form in Oracle Bone script looks more like 月 (moon), in which they are kept in words like 胃 (stomach) 腸 (intestine). Perhaps in order to prevent confusion, by 隸書 texts it is changed to the form seen today.

References:

CUHK Etymology Database (in chinese):

https://humanum.arts.cuhk.edu.hk/Lexis/lexi-mf/search.php?word=肉 https://humanum.arts.cuhk.edu.hk/Lexis/lexi-mf/search.php?word=内

Fun Facts

1. meaning of 內 vs 入

In《説文》, 內 is explained as "It means 入", while 入 is "It means 內".

2. Meaning of 冂

Although 冂 is said to mean wilderness/city outskirts in 《説文》, which is cited by Wiktionary, this is NOT an established fact. It is unclear whether 冂 in 《説文》 is the same word as in 內, which should be closer to 宀 for the majority of time. The character 冂 is so rarely used it is mostly unclear what it meant when it is used alone (mostly in incomplete texts).

冂 is used as a component in 尚/堂/常/高, also, and the original character of 堂, meaning hall. 冂 is also used as a simplified form of (冋/坰), meaning wilderness. Note that it is not a unseen phenomenon that the same shape being two different Kanji characters. So some scholars, including 落合淳思 from 立命館大学 in Japan believe that 冂 as seen in Oracle bone script is a 亡失字 lost word, distinct to the 2 use case above.

Reference

some research on 冂, in Japanese:

https://www.hiemalis.org/~acy/mnc/2678201gcd.html

CUHK Etymology Database, in Chinese:

https://humanum.arts.cuhk.edu.hk/Lexis/lexi-mf/search.php?word=冂

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    In general, for online source of Kanji etymology I would recommend the etymology database by the Chinese University of Hong Kong: humanum.arts.cuhk.edu.hk/Lexis/lexi-mf . Most other online sources such as Wiktionary just directly quote from 《説文》, which is written in 100CE, more than 1000 years ago. Understandably, there are some minor mistakes, and the words can shift, or duplicate through time. The CUHK database cite more variety of sources and interpretation, which is better IMO.
    – ed9w2in6
    Commented Jun 25 at 10:30
  • Looking at en.wiktionary.org/wiki/王#Chinese , the "traditional" interpretation is 《説文》, while "modern" are other scholars / texts.
    – ed9w2in6
    Commented Jun 25 at 10:32
  • In most cases, it is unclear what the source of etymology is from on Wiktionary. The CUHK database will typically state the author, unfortunately not in bibliography standard, yet still better than the others.
    – ed9w2in6
    Commented Jun 25 at 10:34
  • The reason I said 人 is in it is because that's the radical that's mentioned here: jisho.org/search/%E8%82%89%20%23kanji but my real question wasn't about what the name of the radical is. It's about if there is a kanji with 3 of those. And I think the answer to that is also "no there is no such kanji".
    – ubershmekel
    Commented Jun 26 at 0:50
  • @ubershmekel I see why you have this question now, unfortunately, the website is wrong.
    – ed9w2in6
    Commented Jun 26 at 4:01

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