Hi, I was wondering whether 安(やす) should be called cheap instead of relax. I can't find a word that uses 安 as relax anywhere (I'm also unsure as to whether 語(ご) should be called word)! Thanks in advance for answering. Oh, and hi, this is my first post.

The keywords are used more for mnemonic purposes than for the actual meanings all the time.

I'm not sure if that character gets fit into a bigger character later in the book, but it is really likely that it will be. Not changing the keyword will save you work later.

You can learn the readings and true meanings of words in context after you do RtK.

Good luck! Remember that it's your learning so feel free to do whatever you like! The most 'efficient' way to do it would honestly be to not change it.

安 has a meaning of relax or being at ease probably more than it does cheap. There are many words that use 安 as "relax" in a broad since.

安全 safe
安心　relieved
安定　stability
安産 easy childbirth
不安 uneasy
平安　peace

I guess that's about all I can think of at the moment.

Thanks, I didn't expect such quick replies!

IIRC, 安 isn't used as a primitive in any other stories. It's possible that I could be wrong, but I don't remember any.

As for 語, there's 用語 (term), 単語 (word; vocabulary), 語句(words; phrases), 熟語 (kanji compound), and IIRC, it's also used as the counter for words.

While I probably would have used "language" or something along those lines, "word" fits just as well, too. The best advice I can think of is to just not worry about the English keywords.

Asriel Wrote:IIRC, 安 isn't used as a primitive in any other stories. It's possible that I could be wrong, but I don't remember any.

There were a couple early on the book - banquet and plan?

Banquet doesn't really use it, because you have sun fit in between so it doesn't retain it's shape.

Plan does, however.

There's also 按, 鞍, and 晏 in RTK3 for good measure

Whoops...
I guess I didn't recall correctly.

Many of the keywords are arbitrary.

This is actually one of the better keywords in the book.

fleet street Wrote:安(やす)

I can't find a word that uses 安 as relax anywhere

I may be off on this but it seems that when the word uses the kunyomi やす it has a meaning of cheap, but when it uses the onyomi あん it has the meaning of relax, so if you were only looking for words using やす that may be why you couldn't find any words with a meaning of relax.

ドル安　どるやす　weak dollar
安売り　やすうり　sell cheap
安物　　やすもの cheap goods
安値 やすね cheap price

vs

安全 あんぜん　safe
安心　あんしん　relieved
安定　あんてい　stability
安産 　あんざん　easy childbirth
不安 　ふあん　　uneasy
平安　へいあん　peace

やす is not only cheap
for example
安らぎ　
靖国　(やすくに) (different kanji though, haha bad example maybe )
etc...

thistime Wrote:I may be off on this but it seems that when the word uses the kunyomi やす it has a meaning of cheap, but when it uses the onyomi あん it has the meaning of relax,

安価(あんか） = low price

This is actually very interesting from a linguistic standpoint because it's one of the few cases where a Japanese word (やすい in this case) gained a new meaning over time, and then the on-yomi of the kanji used to represent the word picked up on that meaning.

Didn't mean to suggest this was a 100% of the time thing. Just a general observation. But thanks for pointing out exceptions. They're always nice to see.