Cool Kanji – 恐

 
This kanji popped up in a post a couple weeks ago. It’s got 心 on the bottom, so you know it’s going to be some kind of emotion. Not sure exactly what the top means, but it’s pronounced きょう and おそれる(恐れる)and means fear, awe, frightening. It’s used in the always useful 恐縮, the awesomely-named Osorezan (恐山) up in Aomori Prefecture, and also in the word for dinosaur 恐竜, which has, I think, the same etymology as the word in English – terrible lizard/dragon. (Err…or is that the etymology of Tyrannosaurus?)

Cool.