WAAAAAAAY OT: Help with Asian Character

mjroddy wrote on 2/16/2009, 12:33 PM
This is SOOO far off topic, but I need help in determining what character is on a gift card that was given to me. I don't even know which language it originates from.

Since this is such a diverse group, I thought this would be OK to post here.

I've put a scan of the character in question up at:
http://matthewroddy.com/character/unknowncharacter.jpg

Thanks for the help!

Comments

farss wrote on 2/16/2009, 12:38 PM
It's Chinese, drawn originally with brush and ink.
My wife is out for a while, when she's back I can tell you for certain what it means although by then hopfeully someone else will have chimed in.

Not OT at all BTW. I've had to grapple with a lot of non English text and fonts over the years.

Bob.
farss wrote on 2/16/2009, 2:39 PM
"THANK YOU"

Bob.
Earl_J wrote on 2/16/2009, 6:22 PM
Hello Bob, mjroddy...
my wife (Okinawan descent) does verify that it appears to be Chinese and definitely not Japanese. She said that in Japanese, it appears to be the character for a bow and arrow. . . one of those long, tall bows you see in historical Japanese movies. . . there are some complex concepts in the Asian languages; so although it might have some meaning in Japanese, it may have a completely different meaning in Chinese...
Japanese does borrow many characters and symbols from many languages; additionally, the Chinese culture is so old, it has influenced all the languages in the Far East in some fashion... so although originally Chinese, it may have meanings or derivations in other languages... and the meanings might not relate to each other.

So, in the attempt to find out what it *is* - we're creating a list of what it *isn't* ... <grin>

Until that time. . . Earl J.

Good luck
farss wrote on 2/16/2009, 9:54 PM
This time dictionary was consulted:
____________________________
shieh xie

a pavilion; an arbor; a kiosk
____________________________

One of the base characters is indeed Bow.

Bob.
mjroddy wrote on 2/17/2009, 9:40 AM
Very interesting all the way across the board! Thanks very much!