卯 - Wiktionary, the free dictionary (original) (raw)

See also: 卵, 卬, and 戼

Stroke order

卯 (Kangxi radical 26, 卩+3, 5 strokes, cangjie input 竹竹尸中 (HHSL), four-corner 77720, composition ⿰𠂎卩)

| | Old Chinese | | | -------------------------------- | --------------------------- | | 卯 | *mruːʔ | | 昴 | *mruːʔ | | 泖 | *mruːʔ | | 茆 | *mruːʔ, *m·ruʔ | | 奅 | *m̥ʰruːs | | 窌 | *m̥ʰruːs, *m·ruː, *m·rus | | 聊 | *m·rɯːw | | 貿 | *mlus | | 鄮 | *mlus | | 劉 | *m·ru | | 留 | *m·ru, *m·rus | | 蒥 | *m·ru | | 鶹 | *m·ru | | 騮 | *m·ru | | 榴 | *m·ru | | 瑠 | *ru | | 瘤 | *m·ru, *m·rus | | 遛 | *m·ru | | 鎦 | *m·ru | | 飀 | *m·ru | | 鰡 | *m·ru | | 嵧 | *m·ru | | 餾 | *m·ru, *m·rus | | 瀏 | *m·ru, *m·ruʔ | | 懰 | *m·ru, *m·ruʔ | | 柳 | *m·ruʔ | | 珋 | *m·ruʔ | | 罶 | *m·ruʔ | | 嬼 | *m·ruʔ, *m·rus | | 溜 | *m·rus | | 霤 | *m·rus | | 廇 | *m·rus | | 塯 | *m·rus |

The character represents a pair of knives to butcher animals. The original meaning is preserved in 劉. An old and conservative variant is 戼.

This character was found in oracle bone scripts depicting a sacrifice (a human or animal body) that is cut in half. This kind of practice mainly happened in Shang dynasty and was gradually eliminated after Zhou's conquest of Shang, leading to obscurity of the character's original meaning.

According to Shuowen Jiezi, it is an open door, like 門／𨳇 (mén) but reversed; however, Xu Shen's interpretations are not based on oracle bones and bronzes. Another similar folk etymology links the character to the mortise in woodworking.

Derived from root 流 (OC *r(j)u) with volitional or agentive OC prefix *m- (see Sagart, 1999); so *m-ruu means "(cause to flow >) pour out, empty" > *m-ruuʔ 卯 "pouring or emptying stage" i.e. "waning moon", "with the word in its sacrificial applications meaning 'to blood-let'" (Smith, 2011).

Association with the rabbit was probably arbitrary, just as how 辰 was arbitrarily associated with the dragon (see Ferlus, 2013).

simp. and trad. 卯
alternative forms 丣 ‡戼𩇦𩇨𩇧丣 ‡戼𩇦𩇨𩇧𤕰𦕔
Baxter–Sagart system 1.1 (2014)
Character 卯
Reading # 1/1
ModernBeijing(Pinyin) mǎo
MiddleChinese ‹ mæwX ›
OldChinese /*mˁruʔ/
English 4th earthly branch
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 卯
Reading # 1/1
No. 8871
Phoneticcomponent 卯
Rimegroup 幽
Rimesubdivision 1
CorrespondingMC rime 卯
OldChinese /*mruːʔ/

卯

  1. fourth of twelve earthly branches (十二支)
  2. rabbit (兔) of Chinese zodiac
  3. period from 5-7 a.m.
  4. early morning
  5. mortise

卯

(Jinmeiyō kanji)

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Kanji in this term
卯
うJinmeiyō
kun'yomi

From 兎 (usagi, u, “rabbit”).

卯(う) • (U)

  1. the Rabbit, the fourth of the twelve Earthly Branches
    Hypernyms: 十二支, 地支
    Coordinate terms: 子, 丑, 寅, 卯, 辰, 巳, 午, 未, 申, 酉, 戌, 亥
Kanji in this term
卯
ぼうJinmeiyō
on'yomi

From Middle Chinese 卯 (mæwX).

卯(ぼう) • (Bō) ←**ばう** (Bau)?

  1. the Rabbit, the fourth of the twelve Earthly Branches
    Hypernyms: 十二支, 地支
    Coordinate terms: 子, 丑, 寅, 卯, 辰, 巳, 午, 未, 申, 酉, 戌, 亥

卯 (eumhun 토끼 묘 (tokki myo))

  1. hanja form? of 묘 (“rabbit”)

卯 (eumhun 넷째 지지 묘 (netjjae jiji myo))

  1. hanja form? of 묘 (“fourth Earthly Branch”)

卯: Hán Nôm readings: mão, mẫu, méo, Mẹo, mẻo

  1. chữ Hán form of Mão (“fourth of the twelve earthly branches”).
    Hypernyms: 地支, 十二支
    Coordinate terms: 子, 丑, 寅, 卯, 辰, 巳, 午, 未, 申, 酉, 戌, 亥