(prefix indicating ordinal number, as in 第六[di4 liu4] "sixth") / (literary) grades in which successful candidates in the imperial examinations were placed / (old) residence of a high official / (literary) but; however / (literary) only; just
第
=
⺮
+
弓
+
丨
+
丿
:
Dorothy Gale (di) accomplished an awesome result with her composite bow (弓) in the space station's bathroom (Ø4): She shot a banana (丿) onto a dinosaur bone (丨) so the banana was split in half, and then fired a bamboo stick (⺮) into the banana (丿) so the banana was split in half as well. Dorothy is number one (第) with the bow!
二
=
一
:
Mnemonic symbol: a capacitor, because the two strokes remind me of the symbol in electrical drawings. Albert Einstein (Ø) is experimenting with a capacitor (二) in the space station's bathroom (Ø4). He finds that it's uncomfortable to discharge a capacitor using two flutes (一).
next in sequence / second / the second (day, time etc) / secondary / vice- / sub- / infra- / inferior quality / substandard / order / sequence / hypo- (chemistry) / classifier for enumerated events: time
次
=
冫
+
欠
:
Mnemonic symbol: the cube, as in words involving 三次 relate to "cubic equations" or "cube (third power)". The King of Chu (c) pulls a popsicle (冫) out of the cube (次) in the space station's bathroom (Ø4) and leaves an IOU note (欠) on the cube.
Second Chinese Character Simplification Scheme (second round of simplified Chinese characters, proposed in 1977 and retracted in 1986) / abbr. to 二簡|二简[er4 jian3]