Why are the definitions of some characters not the same as the dictionary definitions of those characters?
This usually happens because there is a difference between the original meaning of characters and their common meaning today.
The meaning that a building block character had when the character writing system was being developed is often very relevant to the way that that building block is used in combination characters.
This is why these "radicals" (as they are technically called) are usually given "names" that correspond to their ancient meanings rather than to the modern ones. The meanings that Memrise introduces first for these characters is generally the radical one, because this in the one that is going to be most important in learning the largest number of other characters. Learning its common meaning later on is a relatively small task, as it is almost always derived from the ancient meaning.
When this happens there should always be another item in the database for the modern meaning, and there is a relationship between the items so that you will always be made of the alternative meanings.
wang2 亡 is part of those? It means ''to die'' in any dictionary but is taught as ''to hide'' on memrise... Mistake or origin/modern difference?
Posted by TL-Innocence27 11/16/11 (1 year ago)"to hide" is listed in a few places as a meaning of this word - though I can't actually see evidence that it is an ancient vs modern meaning. It may just be a rare vs common one. At the moment "to die" and "to perish" are listed as the alternative meanings of this word (which are very going to be made more visible to you when you are learning, so that you can be made aware of them). It sounds as though we should switch this around and mark "to die" as the primary meaning. I will post a comment on the discussion for that word and if there is agreement (or at least no disagreement, then I will make the change). Thanks!
Posted by benwhately 11/20/11 (1 year ago)wow,I don't know what dictionary you are using,but this is so awful ,how can wang2亡 mean to hide, i am a native Chinese,i never know wang2亡 can mean to hide,nobody will think that ,for sure,anyway wang2亡 this character is an old style I mean you will only see this word when you read our books that dated at least 500 years ago
Posted by ZhangXiaotao 2/4/12 (1 year ago)Thanks very much for this feedback. So if I understand you right, since this character is only used in old books, is it not ok to learn the old meaning (to hide), which might have a bit more relevance to how the character appears in more complex characters, rather than use its meaning that is only used when reading quite old texts? I know that you are a native speaker, so didn't learn to read characters by looking at the meanings of the constituent parts, but this does help us foreign natives to get a hold on the characters! But, as I said below, Memrise is a wiki and if people would rather have the meaning of 亡 as "to die". So let us know what you think by leaving a comment on the word itself, here - http://www.memrise.com/item/14... Thanks!Ben
Posted by benwhately 2/4/12 (1 year ago)I think you need to,change the definition of er2 currently listed as beard b.c it is confusing, also si2 listed as fetus, does that appear in any modern dictionary?
Posted by zeemam 6/9/12 (11 months ago)exacly; go for fetus in google-translate there is no si2 sign in any of 4 offers. Similar with laddle. Those radicals playing words really make me think there is a joker in the memrise chinese section.
Posted by supcik 10/21/12 (6 months ago)I can see Ben's point in stating where words come from. (e.g. 巳 being fetus).
However, I think it would be much more useful if words that do this were labeled as such. Put the word "archaic" or something along the lines for such symbols & definitions. It will at least prevent people from thinking that is the current meaning of the word.
When you're learning a language it kind of sucks when you see a symbol and think "oh that's how you say X" and that gets into your head only to find that native speakers do not use anything close to that word
Posted by JMV290 10/21/12 (6 months ago)Memrise is helping me to finally get a grip on Chinese characters. My plan is to learn at least 500, and then start reading books and watching videos and trying to figure out how they are used. Because this is my approach, I think that what Memrise does will really work for me... as long as there aren't any mistakes in the pinyin! I have already learned from a native Chinese friend that many archaic characters can not be used literally.
Posted by An_Fei_Er 10/24/12 (6 months ago)