KANJI: HON moto (book, root, true, this)

ASCII Art Representation:

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Character Etymology:

An older form of this character reveals it to be a pictograph of a tree with roots, acting as an ideograph to represent many meanings; most of which usually involve the concepts of essence and origin. Drawing from the concept that this is a tree with roots, this character also came to be the counter for counting long, cylindrical objects.

A Listing of All On-Yomi and Kun-Yomi Readings:

on-yomi: HON
kun-yomi: moto

Nanori Readings:

Nanori: mato

English Definitions:

1. HON: book; this, the same, the present, the current; main; true; real; regular, normal; counter for long, round things.
2. moto: beginning, origin; foundation, basis, source; cause; root (of a tree), (raw) material, base; capital; principal; cost; forebears; formerly.

Character Index Numbers:

New Nelson: 2536
Henshall: 70

Unicode Encoded Version:

本

Unicode Encoded Compound Examples:

本人 (honnin): said person; the person himself.
日本 (nihon): Japan: lit. "Sun Origin," fig. The land of the Rising Sun.
本屋 (honya): bookstore.

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