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I'm a graphic designer and illustrator working on a personal character design project about animals made out of combining different asymmetrical figures.

I've been trying to choose a name for my project, and I found out about this Japanese kanji '図' (romanized 'Zu') which according to various dictionaries that I have consulted, means "figure" but also means: illustration, drawing, and most importantly "diagram".

I don't trust these dictionaries enough though, so what I need to know is if '図' is really used to say "figure" or "illustration" in Japanese since I want the project to be called 'Zumals', a word combination between that word 'Zu' from Japanese, and the word 'animals' taken from English.

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  • You could just call it "zu" as an approximate homonym for the English word "zoo" if you are designing pictures of animals. Because frankly, "zumals" just sounds dumb as hell.
    – JansthcirlU
    May 1, 2021 at 20:58
  • @JansthcirlU thanks, I also thought about that homonym, the "-mals" thing was just the first thing a thought when I was thinking about a name, but I think I'm going to change it, the style of my illustrations is childish and they include various wild animals, they're designs made from scratch.
    – Rainer
    May 1, 2021 at 22:15
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    I don't know why some people are trying to mark this as a "translation request". While this question may seem a bit elementary, I think this is a valid and focused question with enough research effort and background information.
    – naruto
    May 2, 2021 at 9:39
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    "Zumals" rather sounds like German to me...
    – broccoli facemask
    May 2, 2021 at 12:02
  • Just makes me think of "zoo"
    – flowsnake
    May 2, 2021 at 18:27

2 Answers 2

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図 ("zu") is a word that primarily refers to technical diagrams and illustrations. A typical 図 is something shown in this page:

図

Technical illustrations are also 図, but artistic illustrations are not.

図 and non-図

The English word "figure" has many meanings. 図 refers to "figure" as in "This research paper has one table and four figures".

So the first thing you have to do is check if you're really making a 図 like the ones shown above.

However, even if you're actually making 図, that's not enough. Technically speaking, "zumal" is a portmanteau, but 図 is a very short word. It's very unlikely that anyone who is familiar with both English and Japanese will notice your intention by looking at this word. If that's not a problem to you, go ahead, but if you're thinking of using "zumal" as a catchy title, you may want to reconsider.

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The Kanji Learner's Course lists this kanji with the keyword "drawing". It's not strictly the meaning of the kanji, but most of the time words containing 図 will be related to that meaning. Kanji, in general, don't have a meaning directly translatable to English.

Some examples:
図書館 (toshokan) Library
図鑑 (zukan) Pictorial book
図表 (zuhyou) Diagram

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  • One more example: Map -- 地図 (chizu)
    – ajsmart
    May 1, 2021 at 23:48
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    図 (ず) is a very common independent word. You can say 図を書く, このページには2個の図がある, etc.
    – naruto
    May 2, 2021 at 3:00
  • You are right. I focused too much on the kanji itself, and I forgot some kanji are also words. Good catch!
    – oscarlima
    May 2, 2021 at 19:49

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