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Definition 2024


See also:

Translingual

Stroke order
(cursive)

Han character

(radical 86 +8, 12 strokes, cangjie input 人廿火 (OTF), four-corner 80331, composition ⿱⿳𠂉)

Derived characters

References

  • KangXi: page 673, character 26
  • Dai Kanwa Jiten: character 19113
  • Dae Jaweon: page 1081, character 24
  • Hanyu Da Zidian: volume 3, page 2211, character 15
  • Unihan data for U+7121

Chinese

trad.
simp.

Glyph origin

Historical forms of the character
Oracle bone script Bronze inscriptions Large seal script Small seal script
Characters in the same phonetic series () (Zhengzhang, 2003) 
Old Chinese
*m̥ʰaː, *maː, *ma
*maː
*hmaː, *ma, *maʔ
*hmaː
*hmaʔ
*m̥ʰaʔ
*ma
*ma, *maʔ
*ma
*ma
*ma
*ma
*ma, *maʔ
*maʔ
*maʔ
*maʔ
*maʔ
*maʔ
*maʔ

Simplified from () – removal of (character used for sound). (Compare from .)

In the source character (OC *maʔ, “dance”), top component graphically originally a figure with outstretched arms holding two animal hides: + + .

Etymology 1

Core Sino–Tibetan. From Proto-Sino-Tibetan *ma (no, not); cognate with Tibetan (ma, not) and Burmese (ma., not).

Cognate with:

  • (OC *mɯl, “not, no”)
  • (OC *ma, “do not”)
  • (OC *mɯd, “not, don't”)
  • (OC *mɯds, “not yet, haven't”)
  • (OC *mralʔ, “not, no”)
  • (OC *maŋ, “not have; to flee, to disappear, to die”)
  • (OC *mɯːd, “to end, to disappear, to drown”)
  • (OC *maːɡ, “none, nobody, nothing; do not; can not”)

Attested profusely in Classical Chinese, this word is the prototypical negation particle in the *m- series of Chinese negatives. In the oracle bone script, however, is not frequently used, and its homophone (or near-homophone) (OC *ma) is used instead.

See (OC *pɯ, *pɯʔ, *pɯ', “not”) for more on negative particles in Old Chinese.

Pronunciation



Rime
Character
Reading # 1/1
Initial () (4)
Final () (24)
Tone (調) Level (Ø)
Openness (開合) Closed
Division () III
Fanqie
Reconstructions
Zhengzhang
Shangfang
/mɨo/
Pan
Wuyun
/mio/
Shao
Rongfen
/mio/
Edwin
Pulleyblank
/muə̆/
Li
Rong
/mio/
Wang
Li
/mĭu/
Bernard
Karlgren
/mi̯u/
Expected
Mandarin
Reflex
Baxter-Sagart system 1.1 (2014)
Character
Reading # 1/3 2/3 3/3
Modern
Beijing
(Pinyin)
Middle
Chinese
‹ mju › ‹ mju › ‹ mju ›
Old
Chinese
/*ma/ /*ma/ /*mo/
English not have volitional prefix don’t

Notes for Old Chinese notations in the Baxter-Sagart system:

* Parentheses "()" indicate uncertain presence;
* Square brackets "[]" indicate uncertain identity, e.g. *[t] as coda may in fact be *-t or *-p;
* Angle brackets "<>" indicate infix;
* Hyphen "-" indicates morpheme boundary;

* Period "." indicates syllable boundary.
Zhengzhang system (2003)
Character
Reading # 1/1
No. 13117
Phonetic
component
Rime
group
Rime
subdivision
0
Corresponding
MC rime
Old
Chinese
/*ma/

Definitions

  1. (literary, Hakka or Min) to not have something; there is not ...
    天空 / 天空   Tiānkōng yún.   There is no cloud in the sky.
    零星錢 / 零星钱 [Min Nan]   Góa lân-san-chîⁿ. [Pe̍h-ōe-jī]   I don't have any change.
  2. (literary, Min) Negation particle preceding verbs and adjectives. not
    /       can't
    /    qiú yú nǐ.   I want nothing from you.
  3. (literary, Min) have not
    / [Min Nan]   Góa kā i kóng. [Pe̍h-ōe-jī]   I didn't tell him.
  4. (literary, Hakka or Min) Interrogative particle.
  5. (Hakka, Min) if not; otherwise (placed at the start of a sentence)
  6. regardless of, no matter whether
  7. nothing, nil
    到有 / 到有   cóng dào yǒu   start from nothing, from scratch
  8. Alternative form of (, “do not”).
  9. without, -less, un-
    /    qíng   heartless
    /       unreasonable
    /    biān   unlimited
Synonyms
Dialectal synonyms of 沒有 (“to not have (+ noun)”)
Variety Location Words
Classical Chinese
Formal (Written Standard Chinese) 沒有
Mandarin Beijing 沒有
Taiwan 沒有
Jinan 沒有
Xi'an 沒有
Wuhan 冇得
Chengdu 沒得
Yangzhou 不得、沒得
Hefei
Cantonese Guangzhou 冇有
Hong Kong
Taishan
Gan Nanchang 冒有
Hakka Meixian
Miaoli (N. Sixian)
Liudui (S. Sixian)
Hsinchu (Hailu)
Dongshi (Dabu)
Zhuolan (Raoping)
Yunlin (Zhao'an)
Jin Taiyuan 、沒啦
Min Dong Fuzhou
Min Nan Quanzhou
Xiamen
Zhangzhou
Taipei
Kaohsiung
Tainan
Taichung
Yilan
Lukang
Sanxia
Kinmen
Magong
Hsinchu
Malaysia
Singapore
Philippine
Chaozhou
Shantou
Thailand
Wu Shanghai 嘸沒
Suzhou 嘸不
Wenzhou
Xiang Changsha 冇得、
Shuangfeng 冇得

Compounds

Etymology 2

From Sanskrit नमस् (namas).

Pronunciation


Definitions

  1. Only used in 南無南无.

Compounds

  • 南無南无

Japanese

Kanji

(grade 4 “Kyōiku” kanji)

  1. nothing
  2. nothingness
  3. none
  4. nil
  5. not

Readings

Compounds

Kanji in this term

Grade: 4
on'yomi

Noun

(hiragana , romaji mu)

  1. nothing, nothingness
  2. (Buddhism): The null set: neither yes nor no (in response to a koan or other question that mistakenly assumes an affirmative or negative answer).

Prefix

(hiragana , romaji mu-)

  1. non-, un-

(hiragana , romaji bu-)

  1. non-, un-

Korean

Hanja

Yakja (略字, simplified cursive) form of 無.

(mu) (hangeul , revised mu, McCune-Reischauer mu, Yale mu)

  1. (mu, “nothing”)
  2. (mu, “no”)
  3. (Buddhism) (mu, “neither yes nor no”) (in response to a koan or a question that mistakenly assumes an affirmative or negative answer)

Vietnamese

Han character

(, , thủy)

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