尉 means “junior officer, lieutenant”

い · i

Also: military officer, jailer, old man, rank

On'yomi (Chinese reading)

イ, ジョウ

JLPT N1 · Taught in secondary school · 11 strokes

The story

A hand (寸) pressing down from the right: the Shuowen reads 尉 as smoothing cloth with a heated iron, a sense now carried by 熨 with fire (火) beneath. Today it ranks junior officers: 少尉, 中尉 and 大尉 run from second lieutenant to captain.

Used in 少尉 (shoui, second lieutenant), 中尉 (chuui, first lieutenant), and 大尉 (taii, captain)

More from Samurai & Soldiers

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• 佐 aide
• 士 warrior
• 隊 troop
• 塁 base (baseball)
• 陣 battle camp
• 幕 curtain
• 准 associate
• 庶 common people
• 班 squad
• 郭 enclosure

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Readings from KANJIDIC2, © EDRDG, CC BY-SA.