押 - PUSH with Your Hands

Readings & Meanings:

オウ

お（す）

お（さえる）

push

Common Usage:

押す

押忍　(オス）

押印

押し売り

Examples:

このドアは押して開けて下さい。

押忍。

借金の証文に押印する。

強引な押し売りに靴ひもを買わされた。

Translations:

Could you please push this door open?

Yo.

I'm going to stamp the loan contract (with my signature).

I was forced into buying even shoestrings from an overbearing, pushy salesman.

Radical:

手 on the left.

The original pictograph of 甲 was of something pressing down on something else, to contain it. That was 甲's original meaning, and if it had stayed that way, 甲 would even now be used for the kanji for おす, to push.

甲 gradually came to mean "husk," so 手 was added to replace 甲. In a way, they complicated things in order to simplify them. I respect that.

Bonus:

押忍 is the male greeting, used among friends. Never to one's boss.

Picture this being said by jocks to each other in high school. It's that kind of macho, puffed-up thing:

"'Sup."

"'Sup."

If you are male, and you are friends with a Japanese male, try saying "押忍" instead of "こんにちは" to each other.

If you are a woman, and you say "押忍" as a greeting, keep in mind it is like wearing a football jersey smelling of beer; you can do it, but it's more of a guy thing.

References:

http://www.kanjinetworks.com/indices/radindex.html
http://www.thejapanesepage.com/node/kanji/o.htm