Amazing Chinese Characters (442) Delicious or Fresh - 鲜（鮮）

  The bronze script of character Delicious is

The top is character Sheep or Goat (Post 6), the bottom is character Fish (Post 2). Ancient people didn't have enough food in most of time, when they had chance to cook lamb and fish together, the cooked soup or meat is so delicious that they created the character by putting the two character together to express the unforgettable taste. This is a typical ideogram character: use the two or more pictographic characters which are drawings of the physical objects to express non - physical meaning like adjective term.

There is another bronze script of the character is

The left is the character Fish, the right is character Sheep or Goat. The structure becomes left - right from top - bottom of bronze script.

The big seal script of the character is

The top is character Sheep or Goat, and bottom is character Fish. I cut off the bottom, and enlarge it below.

which is one of character Fish because there are many different forms of each character before small seal script which unified Chinese: one character is only one form.

The small seal script of the character is

which is similar to the second bronze script.

The clerical script of the character is

Similar to small seal script.

The song typeface of traditional character is

鮮

Same as the clerical script. The left is traditional character 魚, the right one is same (羊 has only one form shared by both simplified and traditional characters, most of characters are in this situation)

The song typeface of simplified script is

鲜

The left character Fish 鱼, the right 羊 is same. This is a type of simplified characters: one part is simplified but another or other part(s) is a form(s) shared by both simplified or traditional characters.

The pinyin of the character is Xian1.

鲜 means Fresh too. 

Amazing Chinese Characters (441) Orifice - 孔

 The bronze script of character Orifice is

A hair on the top head of a Child (Post 21).

or

The hair is on upper right.

Dictionary of Pictography explains that there is a bunch of hair as a sign of adulthood. But there are other explanations, the one agreed by many people is that the baby's fontanelle which is like a small hole, which makes sense to me. The upper right curve is an indicator for the fontanelle.

The big seal script of the character is

Similar to the second bronze script.

The small seal script of the character is

The left is character Child, the right one is the curve separated from the head of child right now.

The clerical script of the character is

The left is character Child, the right one is the curve.

The song typeface of the character is

孔

Same as clerical script.

The pinyin of the character is Kong3.

Some points I want to emphasize for character 孔

1, 孔 is small, and opening ends hole, which could be in/on every where.

2, 孔 is a popular surname. Confucius - 孔子，his family name is 孔.

Amazing Chinese Characters (440) Abandon - 弃 (棄）

 The shell bone script of character Abandon is

The top is upside down character Child, the bottom are two hands. In ancient time, because there were not enough foods, sometimes, people just abandoned the new born babies. 

Another shell bone script 

The top is a baby, the middle is a bamboo basket, the bottom are two hands. People put the baby in the basket to abandon.

The bronze script of the character is

The top middle is a upside down baby two hands on bottom sides, the rest is the bamboo basket.

The big seal script of the character is

Similar to bronze script.

The small seal script of the character is

Still some similarity to old scripts.

The clerical script of the character is

The top baby is not like baby anymore. the bottom two hands become two dots.

The song typeface of traditional character is

棄

Similar to clerical script.

The song typeface of simplified character is

弃

The top is same as that in traditional character, but the bottom is totally changed.

You may see often the clerical script like the one below

which is the simplified character.

The pinyin of the character is Qi4.

Amazing Chinese Characters (439) Take - 取

 The shell bone script of character Take is

The left 

is character Ear (Post 42).

The right is a hand.

There are many explanations for the script, the major three are

1, Cut enemy's ears to show how many one killed.

2, Cut wild animal's ears to show many one killed

3, Cut wild animal's ear to reward the hunter (the rest is shared with whole tribe)

I prefer to number 3, which has the meaning of "Take".

The bronze script of the character is

The ear on the left, and hand on the right, even though they are not like the ear or the hand as much as the shell bone script. 

The big seal script of the character is

The left is ear, the right is hand.

The small seal script of the character is

The left is ear, and the right is hand.

The clerical script is 

The left is character 耳 - ear, the right is character 又 -  Again (Post 102), which means Hand originally and here.

The song typeface of the character is

取

Same as the clerical script.

The Pinyin of 取 is Qu3.