刻

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engrave

On-Yomi: コク — Kun-Yomi: きざ.む、きざ.み

Koohii stories:

1) [fuaburisu] 15-4-2008(199): This famous ninja (I always use ninjas with sabres, distinct from samurai) used to engrave the kanji for his name onto acorns, and throw the acorns to distract his enemies. The legend goes that by the time his victims would pick up the acorn and read the engraved kanji, they were already dead.

2) [rgravina] 3-8-2006(76): While it's traditional for lovers to engrave their names on a tree in many countries, in Japan, however, it was traditional for a samurai to signify his undying love for a woman by engraving the kanji of her name on an acorn with his sabre.

3) [DavidZ] 17-10-2009(20): TIP: This also means "time"… STORY: The Swiss watchmaker is a master engraver. He engraves the minutes and seconds on an acorn using a tiny saber to make a miniature cuckoo clock… 遅刻 [ちこく].

4) [sweetneet] 14-8-2006(19): Whenever i think of "engraving" i think of wedding invitations. :) well there's this one bride who wanted to be unique, so rather than on paper, she decided to engrave their wedding invitations on an acorn with a sabre, and give that out to their guests. (Not true story, but with brides' crazy ideas these days, I wouldn't be surprised…) :-).

5) [Virtua_Leaf] 9-1-2008(17): Just picture Zorro using his saber to engrave his name out on a giant acorn.

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