誤 - Don't Give Away Too Much in Talk, or You'll Make a MISTAKE

Readings & Meanings:

あやま（−る）

ゴ

mistake

Common Usage:

誤解

誤り

Examples:

ロミオはジュリエットが死んだと誤解して自殺してしまった。

次の文章から誤りを見つけなさい。

Translations:

Romeo commited suicide due to mistakenly thinking Juliet was dead.

Please find the mistakes in the following sentence.

Bonus:

A frequent radical is 言. We see it in 読む, 話す, and other kanji relating to words, language, speech.

Here, it's paired with 呉 from 呉れる, which means "to give."

But if you think that 言 + 呉 = 誤, you'd be MISTAKEN. At least, if you look at the Japanese meanings.

For this etymology, let's go back to the Chinese. 呉 in China can refer to "boisterous verbal exchange." If you add the radical for talking in there, let's all take the semantic leap with me and say that 言 + 呉 = too much talking, and too much talking → mistakes.

Important:

Although we feel there's a strong semantic connection between making mistakes and making apologies, 誤る (ayamaru) is NOT the same kanji as to apologize (謝る, also ayamaru).

References:

http://www.kanjinetworks.com/knetwork/KAG.html
http://www.thejapanesepage.com/kanji/kanji/a.htm