Occasional Tales

Getting carried away. 提 ( tí ) is another character that seems to have sailed into view quite a few times recently. It can mean carry (in hand with arm hanging down) move upward; raise; promote move up (a date); advance speak of; mention; put forward draw; take out; withdraw bring or take out from prison under escort; summon dipper; ladle It's also pronounced dī , but my big dictionary gives it in the words 提防 ( dīfang ) "be on guard against" and 提溜 ( dīliu ) "hold in hand". 提 ( tí ) is used in words such as 提出 ( tíchū ) "put forward; raise"; 提法 ( tífa ) "the way something is put; formulation; wording"; 提高 ( tígāo ) "raise; lift; improve"; 提名 ( tímíng ) "nominate". (Can I make a bad pun about nomination depending on timing? [ Not bloody likely . –ed.]) 提 is also used in the word 提琴 ( tíqín ) "any instrument of the violin family". The violin is the 小提琴 ( xiǎo tíqín ) "little tíqín "; the viola the 中提琴 ( ...

A sound basis. I've been going through one of those phases when I keep seeing the same unknown character several times over. Today's character is 基 ( jī ) "base; basic". I first saw this in a shot of a Japanese book for learning English, but since then I've seen it here in China a couple of times as well. It's found in words such as 基本 (jīběn) "base; basic" 基础 (jīchǔ) "base; foundation" although I don't know whether there's a clear distinction to be made between the two words or they're synonyms. The latter looks like it might be used typically of the foundations of a building (础 means "plinth"), whereas the former seems, if the quantity of citations in the dictionary is a rough quantitative measure of its functions, mainly adjectival (e.g. 基本法 ( jīběnfǎ ) "basic law"). On the other hand, there's also 基础 课 ( jīchǔkè ) "basic (college) course". 基 is also used in the word 基因 ( jīyīn ) "gene...