Eye

by Nao

moku, moku-suru, boku

Eyes are me. The “me” is pronounced like “me” in Mexico. This character has two implications primarily: “look” and “item.”

Look

The almighty suffix –suru and its passive –sareru change many nouns into verbs. The verb “moku-suru” means not only “to look at” but also “to admit.” Its passive tense is “moku-sareru,” meaning “to be regarded.” Let’s see an example. Cnet Japan reports that the Wolfram Alpha engine is regarded as a Google killer (gūguru kirā to moku-sareru). Compounds including moku have similar meanings. Ichimoku is a look or a glance. Ichimoku oku means “to acknowledge somebody as reliable and respectable.” Oku is a verb meaning “to place something.”

Item

Moku also means items, used in compounds. Kōmoku, for example, is a category or a headword. Kō means something categorized. Kamoku is an academic subject. In addition, moku indicates the order in a taxonomic hierarchy. The order of Japanese apricot called ume is categorized as Rosales, which we call baramoku. Bara means rose.

Let me list up several other compounds and usages with other meanings.

Mokka means “for the time being” or “right now.”

Mokuteki is an objective. The teki of mokuteki is an aim.

Menoko means a rough estimate. Menoko literally means a child of eyes.

Megaten is the state of being amazed or appalled. The Japanese ten is a dot and the phrase means the eyes become like dots.

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As such a phrase tells us,  “me wa kuchi hodo ni mono wo iu.” It’s a proverb meaning “the eye is as talkative as the mouth.”

All horizontal strokes are parallel.

1. Draw the vertical line on the left.
2. Draw the upper and right sides of the rectangle.
3. Draw the upper horizontal stroke in the rectangle.
4. Draw the lower horizontal stroke in the rectangle.
5. Draw the lower side of the rectangle.