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I noticed that the 前 is a handy kanji character in Japanese language. It is
used in many words including but not limited to:

> 名前 {なまえ} : Given name
>
> 手前, お前 : You
>
> [当]{あ}たり[前]{まえ} : Natural, obvious matter
>
> 出前 : Meal delivery
>
> [建]{た}て[前]{まえ} : Public facade
>
> 男前 {おとこまえ} : Handsome, manly, masculine
>
> 不足前 {たらずまえ} : Deficit, shortage
>
> [持]{も}ち前 {まえ} : Characteristic, nature
>
> [分]{わ}け[前]{まえ} : Share, quota
>
> 板前 {いたまえ} : Chef, cook
>
> 朝飯前 {あさめしまえ} : Very easy, a piece of cake

To my knowledge, a kanji character is used in a word because of how the
kanji's meaning relates to the word's meaning, except for the case of
[当て字]{ateji}, so I imagine that there must be a reason why each of the words
above (and many others) uses 前 as the ending kanji character. Does Japanese
language and culture have any concept that centers around 前?

EDIT:

It seems like people are misunderstanding my question here. I am not asking
how to relate the meaning of the 前 characters to the meaning of the words I
listed above. I am asking why are those words built up using the 前 character?
While we can easily see the relevance of 前 in some of them like 名前 and 建て前,
the relevance is not obvious in some others like 出前 and 板前. Does 前 have any
significance in the language or culture, that somehow influenced how those
words are coined?
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2011-07-26T07:06:24.977
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2016-04-10T06:23:10.510
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question
kanji set-phrases culture
The significance of 前 {まえ} in Japanese language and culture
Random suggestions regarding meanings:

名前: how about _forename_?  
手前, お前 : You, who stand _in front of me_  
当たり前: an explication is a reading from misspelled "当然"  
出前: Goes out, up to your _front_ door  
建て前: Really a facade, like that of a building, isn't it?  
板前: in front of the cooking plan/shelf  
朝飯前: makes me think of a French expression you may use in a fight, and that
goes like "guys like you, I have some everyday for breakfast". Here, it's so
easy it's even before breakfast :)
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2011-07-26T08:12:08.627
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2011-07-26T08:12:08.627
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前 simply means something like 'before' or 'in front of'

名前 {なまえ} : Before name

手前, お前 : The person in front of me

[建]{た}て[前]{まえ} : In front of the public

板前 {いたまえ} : Person in front of a cooking board

朝飯前 {あさめしまえ} : Before breakfast (as in, So easy I can do it before breakfast)

The others on your list probably also work like the last one in that there was
some phrase that made them make sense, but they've been shortened to just a
word.
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2011-07-26T11:04:22.300
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I think the meaning is pretty similar across all the words. It kind of means
'forefront' or 'spitting image of', and it's from Kabuki. I just told someone
else this in another question.... If you consider that the minds of the people
who created the language were more interested in the interactions between
major structures than they were interested in major structures: you'll
understand that what was most important when '前' was chosen to describe things
that you would interact with in a play.

It's kind of an extension of the idea of 'concrete' and 'abstract', in
English, where 'table' is a concrete thing and 'love' is an abstract thing.
It's very easy to point to a table and call it what it is, but you can't point
to love and say "that's it". It requires a lot of description. In that same
way, when words like '名前' come to play, there's the first kanji, which means
name, and the second kanji, which means 'it is most like it, so everyone can
pretend'. In the other unusual case you mentioned, we have '建て前' which you
have said means 'public facade'. '建て' alone means 'build', right? So,
separating the two kanji: a) something that we build, and b) everyone plays
along with because it seems so real.... This is undeniably a facade, I think.
It's difficult to get used to, but it's also good to know. Kanji, and indeed
kanji combination, is to do with interactions (as in operators), not just
mundane items (as in operands).
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2011-07-26T16:33:05.917
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The meaning of `前` in your examples do not seem to converge to one. If there
are a lot of words made with `前`, it is just a coincidence. But since it is an
abstract word, it is likely to be used in many words.

[This website](http://gogen-allguide.com/) provides the origin of many words,
for example: [名前](http://gogen-allguide.com/na/namae.html), [出前](http://gogen-
allguide.com/te/demae.html), [当たり前](http://gogen-
allguide.com/a/atarimae.html), [板前](http://gogen-allguide.com/i/itamae.html),
[男前](http://gogen-allguide.com/o/otokomae.html)

You can see that the origin is not as straight forward as some other answers
speculate.
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2011-07-26T19:25:09.183
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2011-07-27T00:52:50.540
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answer