Atamaji
迷

迷

On reading: MEI
Kun reading: mayo(u)

The character for being lost. It covers both the map kind and the other kind.

When “迷” fills a head

Why it is in the set

Because the double meaning is a gift. One character covers the person standing at a junction and the person standing in front of an open fridge, and in a joke generator that ambiguity does the work of two. It is also the character the site uses on its own error pages, which felt right.

What a head full of it looks like

Opening the same two tabs repeatedly. Asking someone else to choose and then arguing with their choice. Deciding to decide later. A head led by 迷 is not short of options; it is short of a reason to prefer one.

Words that use it

迷う (mayou, to hesitate or be lost), 迷子 (maigo, a lost child), 迷惑 (meiwaku, trouble caused to someone else), 迷路 (meiro, a maze), 迷信 (meishin, a superstition).

Kanji it turns up with

悩 (worrying) is its near-twin and the two together are read as one state. 迷 leading with 旅 (travel) behind it is the only combination where the literal meaning comes back, and the quips use it.

Where “迷” comes from

The road radical 辶 underneath, and 米, rice, on top for the sound. A road, and a sound: the road you cannot find your way along.

辶 is one of the most useful radicals to recognise. It appears in 道 (a way), 進 (to advance), 送 (to send), 逃 (to escape) — anything to do with going.

Japanese uses 迷う for losing your way in a town and for being unable to choose from a menu, with no change of word at all.

A line you might get for “迷”

“Two options, equally fine. Forty minutes gone.”

Count the “迷” in your own head

Others in “Feelings”

“迷” is filed under “Feelings”. These are the rest of that group.

The 36 kanji

This is entirely a joke and has nothing to do with any real person.