冥

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冥 U+51A5, 冥
CJK UNIFIED IDEOGRAPH-51A5
← 冤
 		CJK Unified Ideographs 冦 →

Translingual

Han character

冥 (Kangxi radical 14, 冖+8, 10 strokes, cangjie input 月日卜金 (BAYC), four-corner 37800, composition ⿱冖昗 or ⿱𠕾六)

Derived characters

References

  • Kangxi Dictionary: page 130, character 28
  • Dai Kanwa Jiten: character 1588
  • Dae Jaweon: page 293, character 8
  • Hanyu Da Zidian (first edition): volume 1, page 304, character 10
  • Unihan data for U+51A5

Chinese

simp. and trad.
 冥
alternative forms 𡨕
𠖇
㝠
暝

Glyph origin

Historical forms of the character 冥
Shuowen Jiezi (compiled in Han)
Small seal script
Characters in the same phonetic series (冥) (Zhengzhang, 2003) 
Old Chinese
瞑 *meːn, *meːns, *meːŋ
嫇 *mreːŋ, *meːŋ, *meːŋʔ
慏 *meŋʔ
冥 *meːŋ
榠 *meːŋ
鄍 *meːŋ
溟 *meːŋ, *meːŋʔ
螟 *meːŋ
猽 *meːŋ
蓂 *meːŋ, *meːɡ
覭 *meːŋ, *meːɡ
暝 *meːŋ, *meːŋs
幎 *meːɡ
幂 *meːɡ
塓 *meːɡ

Originally ideogrammic compound (會意 / 会意): 冖 (“cloth cover”) + 日 (“sun”) + 廾 (“two hands”); hence, the upper part of the character is 𠕾. The 廾 was later corrupted to 六.

May also be a phono-semantic compound (形聲 / 形声, OC *meːŋ): phonetic 冖 (OC *meːɡ) + semantic 日 + semantic 廾 (Shuowen Jiezi).

Etymology

An area word for "night"; Compare Proto-Hmong-Mien *ʰməŋH (“night”), Proto-Bahnaric *maŋ (“night”), Burmese မည်း (many:, “dark; black”) (Schuessler, 2007).

STEDT compares it to Proto-Sino-Tibetan *muːŋ ~ r/s-muːk (“foggy; dark; sullen; menacing; thunder”).

Pronunciation 1

Rime
Character 冥
Reading # 1/1
Initial (聲) 明 (4)
Final (韻) 青 (125)
Tone (調) Level (Ø)
Openness (開合) Open
Division (等) IV
Fanqie 莫經切
Baxter meng
Reconstructions
Zhengzhang
Shangfang 		/meŋ/
Pan
Wuyun 		/meŋ/
Shao
Rongfen 		/mɛŋ/
Edwin
Pulleyblank 		/mɛjŋ/
Li
Rong 		/meŋ/
Wang
Li 		/mieŋ/
Bernhard
Karlgren 		/mieŋ/
Expected
Mandarin
Reflex 		míng
Expected
Cantonese
Reflex 		ming4
Baxter–Sagart system 1.1 (2014)
Character 冥
Reading # 1/1
Modern
Beijing
(Pinyin) 		míng
Middle
Chinese 		‹ meng ›
Old
Chinese 		/*mˁeŋ/
English dark

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

* Parentheses "()" indicate uncertain presence;
* Square brackets "" indicate uncertain identity, e.g. * 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 冥
Reading # 1/1
No. 9197
Phonetic
component 		冥
Rime
group 		耕
Rime
subdivision 		0
Corresponding
MC rime 		冥
Old
Chinese 		/*meːŋ/

Definitions

冥

  1. (literary) dark; dim; gloomy; faint
  2. (literary) ignorant; muddled
    冥頑不靈／冥顽不灵  ―  míngwánbùlíng  ―  obstinate and ignorant
  3. deep; profound
    苦思冥想  ―  kǔsīmíngxiǎng  ―  to think long and hard
  4. the underworld
    冥府  ―  míngfǔ  ―  the nether world
  5. (obsolete) night
  6. a surname
Compounds

Pronunciation 2

Definitions

冥

  1. Only used in 顛冥／颠冥.

Pronunciation 3

Definitions

冥

  1. Only used in 冥眴.

References

  • “冥”, in 漢語多功能字庫 (Multi-function Chinese Character Database)‎, 香港中文大學 (the Chinese University of Hong Kong), 2014–
  • 莆田市荔城区档案馆 , editor (2022), “冥”, in 莆仙方言文读字汇 [Puxian Dialect Literary Reading Dictionary] (overall work in Mandarin and Puxian Min), page 159.

Japanese

Kanji

冥

(Jōyō kanji)

  1. dark
    Synonym: 溟
  2. underworld; the world of dead people

Readings

  • Go-on: みょう (myō, Jōyō)←みやう (myau, historical)
  • Kan-on: めい (mei, Jōyō)←めい (mei, historical)
  • Kun: くらい (kurai, 冥い)

Compounds

dark
world of dead people
other meaning

Korean

Hanja

冥 (eumhun 어두울 명 (eoduul myeong))

  1. hanja form? of 명 (“dark, gloomy, night”)
  2. hanja form? of 명 (“deep”)

Vietnamese

Han character

冥: Hán Nôm readings: minh, mênh, mưng

  1. This term needs a translation to English. Please help out and add a translation, then remove the text {{rfdef}}.
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