lit. above are the elderly, below are the young (idiom) / fig. to have to take care of both one's aging parents and one's children / sandwich generation
(bound form) up; upper; above; previous / first (of multiple parts) / to climb; to get onto; to go up / to attend (class or university) / (directional complement) up / (noun suffix) on; above
上
=
丨
+
二
:
Sherlock Holmes (sh) investigates a mysterious murder in the anglepod's bathroom (ang4). Somebody has been killed while using the golden squat toilet. He finds a mysterious apparatus on top (上) of it, and breaks it open using a dinosaur bone (丨). As the apparatus breaks, he finds the murderer's weapon: The dinosaur bone is sticking in a capacitor (二), which has been hooked up to the golden squat toilet to kill the victim using the lethal electric charge.
上
=
一
+
丄
:
Mnemonic symbol: as in the movie "Up", someone will be using lots of balloons to send something on a long journey. Sherlock Holmes (sh) prepares to take off in the anglepod's bathroom (ang4). He fixed a lot of balloons (上) to a flute (一), on which he plans to sit during his journey. At this moment the flute is only held back by the 90 degree corner clamp (丄) which is fixing it to the ground.
In an act of revolution, with a pair of scissors (𠂇) Maud Younger (y) is cutting a paper moon (月) into tiny pieces in the outhouse's living room (ou3). There is (有) only confetti (有) left over.
prefix used before the surname of a person or a numeral indicating the order of birth of the children in a family or to indicate affection or familiarity / old (of people) / venerable (person) / experienced / of long standing / always / all the time / of the past / very / outdated / (of meat etc) tough
老
=
⺹
+
匕
:
Lancelot (l) is showing his respect to grandpa (老) in the aorta's living room (ao3). He's bowing deep and offering a crown (⺹), but grandpa refuses by hitting Lancelot on the head with a ladle (匕).
down / downwards / below / lower / later / next (week etc) / second (of two parts) / to decline / to go down / to arrive at (a decision, conclusion etc) / measure word to show the frequency of an action
下
=
一
+
卜
:
Mnemonic symbol: from the up/down logic, and a little bit the shape of the character, a ladder.
Xi Shi (xi) is on a retreat in the ashram. Using a voodoo staff (卜), she divined that next (下) week she'll have to play the flute (一) sixteen hours per day. Because she hates playing the flute, she climbs over the ashram's bathroom (a4) wall using a ladder (下) to escape.
小
=
八
+
亅
:
Mnemonic symbol: a small daisy. 小 looks like the stem 亅 of the flower is pushing aside the earth 八 as it grows out of the seed in the ground.
Xi Shi (xi) is decorating her hair with lots of small (小) daisies (mnemonic symbol for 小) in the aorta's living room (ao3). She wants to have lots of daisies in the future as well, so she plants new daisies. She found that the perfect substrate for planting daisies is made by crushing eight-balls (八) with a crow bar (亅).