乙
おつ · otsu · JLPT N1 · noun
rank
乙 — single stroke pictograph
乙 is an ancient pictograph traditionally said to depict a sprout bending as it pushes through soil, or alternatively a curved fish or bird form. It became the second of the ten Heavenly Stems, used for ordering and enumeration. Today it mostly survives in that ordinal sense and as a stroke-name.