堅 - FORMALLY Bow To the Stiff, HARD Ground

Readings & Meanings:

かた（い）

ケン

firm

Common Usage:

口が堅い

堅苦しい

堅実

Examples:

彼女は口が堅い人だ。

堅苦しい服を着る。

堅実な職業に就く。

Translations:

She is a tight-lipped person (able to keep secrets).

I'm wearing formal clothes.

I got a stable job.

Radical:

土, Tsuchi, is our radical here on the bottom.

臤 is the phonetic, just as in 賢. The part on the left is 臣, a pictograph of a slave's eyes cast down on the ground. The part on the right is 又, the action indicator. Together, they show a stiff, formal bow.

Together with 土, this kanji shows a stiff, formal bow that is as hard as the earth, thus meaning hard, firm, and also serious and formal.

Important:

This かたい contains also the meaning of formality. (See the Radical seciton above for an explanation of the slave element in the kanji.) As you know, Japanese has casual speech and formal speech. This かたい represents that kind of formality. Think of it as "stiff" and you should get the connection.

References:

http://www.kanjinetworks.com/indices/radindex.html
http://www.thejapanesepage.com/node/kanji/7.htm