Earth and places with 地
The kanji 地 has the core meanings of ground, earth, and land. It extends to place, region, and locations spread across the world. It often marks where something is situated or the earthly surface on which things happen.
Etymology
This kanji is a phono-semantic compound comprised of 土 (earth) as the semantic component and 也 as the phonetic component.
Places and Regions
地面 (Ground)
地面 means the ground or earth’s surface. It is the visible surface of the land underfoot.
It combines 地 (ground) with 面 (surface) to show the surface of the ground.
Sazanka is worried that Tsubaki’s abilities go awry when she hears the word “man”. To test this, Sazanka leads Tsubaki to a puddle of water and challenges her to evaporate it with a fire technique, during which Sazanka will whisper “man” into Tsubaki’s ear. The result is Tsubaki’s ability intensifying in power.
- サザンカ:
- 「蒸発どころか…地面抉れてる…」
- “Not just evaporation, even the ground is gouged.”
土地勘 (Feel for a place)
土地勘 means familiarity with the land, (having) knowledge about a place.
It combines 土 (land), 地 (ground), and 勘 (intuition) to express feel for a place.
Not long after moving to a new town to stay with relatives, Makoto decides to head out for a walk. Her cousin is worried she’ll get lost. Makoto says not to worry, because she’ll have her witch familiar cat, Chito, with her.
- 真琴:
- 「実はチトさん この辺を色々探索してたみたいで私よりも土地勘があるんですよ」
- “Actually, Chito seems to have explored this area quite a bit, so she knows her way around better than I do.”
地図帳 (Atlas)
地図帳 means an atlas or map book. It refers to a bound notebook or book containing maps.
It combines 地図 (map) with 帳 (notebook) to show a book of maps.
Ayumi leaves the bag with her new Masked Yaiba doll outside while she’s in the restroom. When she returns, she finds the bag waiting for her, but the doll is gone. Ran suggests someone may have taken her bag by mistake. Genta decides to see what’s in the bag Ayumi brought back, dumping its contents onto the ground.
- 元太:
- 「えーっと… 地図帳に双眼鏡に…」
- “Um... an atlas, binoculars...”
- 「懐中電灯…」
- “...a flashlight...”
- “Um... an atlas, binoculars...”