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Definition 2024


U+99AC, 馬
CJK UNIFIED IDEOGRAPH-99AC

[U+99AB]
CJK Unified Ideographs
[U+99AD]
See also:

Translingual

Stroke order

Han character

(radical 187 馬+0, 10 strokes, cangjie input 尸手尸火 (SQSF), four-corner 71327)

  1. Kangxi radical #187, (horse).

Derived terms

References

  • KangXi: page 1433, character 1
  • Dai Kanwa Jiten: character 44572
  • Dae Jaweon: page 1956, character 34
  • Hanyu Da Zidian: volume 7, page 4539, character 1
  • Unihan data for U+99AC

Chinese

trad.
simp.
alt. forms
 
𫠉

𢒗
𢒠
𢒧
𩡬
𩡮

Glyph origin

Historical forms of the character
Oracle bone script Bronze inscriptions Bamboo and silk script Large seal script Small seal script
Characters in the same phonetic series () (Zhengzhang, 2003) 
Old Chinese
*mraːʔ
*mraːʔ
*mraːʔ, *mraːs
*mraːʔ
*mraːʔ
*mraːʔ
*mraːs
*mraːs
*mraːs
*maːʔ
Clerical script Semi-cursive script Cursive script

Pictogram (象形) ; derived from the pictogram of a horse with its head turned to look back and showing a flowing mane in the wind. The four short strokes at its base () represent its feet, and the sweeping hook stroke in the lower right represents its tail.

Compare also (“bird”), whose current form is similar (graphically, for claws/legs).

Contrast with 鹿 (“deer”), which saw a very different development, and 𢊁 (“bison”) (as in ), which is a hybrid: it has the the legs of () but the head of 鹿.

Etymology

“Horse” – from Proto-Sino-Tibetan *k-m-raŋ ~ s-raŋ. The sense of “big” is derived from “horse”; compare the English uses of horse.

For the insect prefix sense, see . It has converged with the sense of “big”.

Pronunciation



Rime
Character
Reading # 1/1
Initial () (4)
Final () (98)
Tone (調) Rising (X)
Openness (開合) Open
Division () II
Fanqie
Reconstructions
Zhengzhang
Shangfang
/mˠaX/
Pan
Wuyun
/mᵚaX/
Shao
Rongfen
/maX/
Edwin
Pulleyblank
/maɨX/
Li
Rong
/maX/
Wang
Li
/maX/
Bernard
Karlgren
/maX/
Expected
Mandarin
Reflex
Baxter-Sagart system 1.1 (2014)
Character
Reading # 1/1
Modern
Beijing
(Pinyin)
Middle
Chinese
‹ X ›
Old
Chinese
/*mˤraʔ/
English horse

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. 8715
Phonetic
component
Rime
group
Rime
subdivision
0
Corresponding
MC rime
Old
Chinese
/*mraːʔ/

Definitions

  1. horse   (Classifier: ; )
  2. horse-shaped
  3. (chess) knight
  4. (Chinese chess) horse
  5. Original form of (, “chip for counting”).
  6. big (prefix for nouns)
    /    sháo   ladle (big spoon)
  7. Prefix for names of insects, also written as .
  8. Short for 馬祖马祖 (Mǎzǔ).
  9. Short for 馬來西亞马来西亚 (Mǎláixīyà).
  10. A surname.

Compounds


Japanese

Kanji

Japanese stroke order

(grade 2 “Kyōiku” kanji)

  1. horse

Readings

Compounds

Etymology 1

(uma, muma): a pair of horses.
Kanji in this term
うま
Grade: 2
kun'yomi

From Old Japanese.[1] Recorded in the Nihon Shoki as having been brought over from the Korean peninsula kingdom of Baekje, with the earlier reading of ma. The initial m sound was apparently emphasized,[1][2] possibly similar to *mma, becoming then uma or muma, via processes also seen in the word (ume, mume, plum).

The ma sound denoting "horse" is common to a number of languages of central Asia, where horses were first domesticated, suggesting a possible cognate root. Compare Manchu ᠮᠣᡵᡳᠨ (morin, horse), Mongol морь (morj, horse), Korean (mal, horse), Mandarin (, horse), and Proto-Indo-European *márkos (horse) and descendants such as Irish marc (horse, archaic) or English mare (female horse). More at *márkos.

Pronunciation

Noun

(counter , hiragana うま, romaji uma)

  1. a horse
  2. (shogi) a promoted bishop
  3. a sawhorse: a four-leg stand made of wood or iron for supporting other materials

Etymology 2

Kanji in this term
むま
Grade: 2
kun'yomi

Shift from uma form, becoming more common starting from the Heian Period. This change later reverted, and muma is now considered obsolete.

Pronunciation

Noun

(hiragana むま, romaji muma)

  1. (obsolete) a horse
    • c. 759, Man'yōshū (book 20, poem 4372)
      阿志加良能 美佐可多麻波理 可閇理美須 阿例波久江由久 阿良志乎母 多志夜波婆可流 不破乃世伎 久江弖和波由久 牟麻能都米 都久志能佐伎尓 知麻利為弖 阿例波伊波々牟 母呂々々波 佐祁久等麻乎須 可閇利久麻弖尓
    • c. 935 Tosa Nikki
      ふぢはらのときざね、ふなぢなれど、むまのはなむけす。
    • c. 935 Tosa Nikki
      けふはあをむまをおもへど、かひなし。

References

  1. 1 2 1988, 国語大辞典(新装版) (Kokugo Dai Jiten, Revised Edition) (in Japanese), Tōkyō: Shogakukan
  2. 1 2 2006, 大辞林 (Daijirin), Third Edition (in Japanese), Tōkyō: Sanseidō, ISBN 4-385-13905-9
  3. 1998, NHK日本語発音アクセント辞典 (NHK Japanese Pronunciation Accent Dictionary) (in Japanese), Tōkyō: NHK, ISBN 978-4-14-011112-3

Korean

Hanja

(ma)
Eumhun:

  • Sound (hangeul):  (McCune-Reischauer: ma, Yale: ma)
  • Name (hangeul): ,  (revised: mal, seong, McCune-Reischauer: mal, sŏng, Yale: mal, seng)
  1. This term needs a translation to English. Please help out and add a translation, then remove the text {{rfdef}}.

Compounds

See also


Vietnamese

Character

Readings

Compounds

Etymology 1

Noun

(ngựa)

  1. horse

Etymology 2

Noun

(mứa)

  1. excess

Etymology 3

Noun

(mựa)

  1. (dialectal) don't

Etymology 4

Noun

(mả)

  1. tomb, grave
    • 1916: Nguyễn Đình Chiểu, Lục Vân Tiên, lines 921–922
      (tiểu)(đồng)(chẳng)(kịp)(hỏi)(han)/𦣰(nằm)(lăn)(bên)(mả)(khóc)(than)(bồi)(hồi)
      Before the page has a chance to pay a visit, / He throws himself down upon the grave, crying, lamenting, fretting.

Etymology 5

Verb

(mở)

  1. to open

References