布

See also: 佈

布	U+5E03, 布 CJK UNIFIED IDEOGRAPH-5E03

← 市

CJK Unified Ideographs

帄 →

Translingual

Stroke order
Japan (For Chinese, swap strokes 2 and 1.)

Han character

布 (Kangxi radical 50, 巾+2, 5 strokes, cangjie input 大中月 (KLB), four-corner 4022₇, composition ⿸𠂇巾)

References

Kangxi Dictionary: page 328, character 6
Dai Kanwa Jiten: character 8778
Dae Jaweon: page 633, character 2
Hanyu Da Zidian (first edition): volume 1, page 728, character 5
Unihan data for U+5E03

Chinese

佈 – “to spread; to proclaim; to arrange; etc.”
trad.		布/佈
simp.		布

Glyph origin

Historical forms of the character 布
Western Zhou	Warring States	Shuowen Jiezi (compiled in Han)	Liushutong (compiled in Ming)
Bronze inscriptions	Chu slip and silk script	Small seal script	Transcribed ancient scripts

Characters in the same phonetic series (父) (Zhengzhang, 2003)

	Old Chinese
抪	paː, paːs
布	*paːs
佈	*paːs
怖	*pʰaːs
斧	*paʔ
父	paʔ, baʔ
蚥	paʔ, baʔ
滏	*baʔ
釜	*baʔ

Phono-semantic compound (形聲／形声, OC *paːs) : phonetic 父 (OC *paʔ, *baʔ) + semantic 巾.

Etymology

"to spread out" (tr.)

Likely from Proto-Sino-Tibetan. Schuessler (2007) considers this sense to be cognate with:

博 (OC pâk), 博 (OC phâʔ), 敷 (OC pha), & 甫 (OC paʔ); as well as
outside Sinitic, with Proto-Kuki-Chin *phaʔ, whence Mizo phah (“spread (as cloth, etc), to place flat on the ground”), Lai phaʔ (“spread out cloth”), Tedim Chin phaʔ³ (“spread a flat object”), Thado Chin phàa, phàt (“spread out cloth”)

"cloth": "Cloth" is often thought to be the same etymon as "to spread (out)" (tr.). Alternatively, Schuessler thinks this sense's Austroasiatic origin more likely. Indeed, a late Han (漢) dynasty's word for "cotton", 幏布 *ka^(H)-puo^H (Shuowen, Hou Hanshu), was borrowed from the Austroasiatic-speaking Man-Yi peoples, and a Sanskrit loan (c. 430 CE) into Northwestern dialect is 古貝 *ko^X-pei^H. Compare Proto-Austroasiatic *k-rn-pas and Proto-Mon-Khmer *kpaas (“cotton”), whence Khmer ក្របាស (krɑbaah), Bahnar kơpaih, Proto-Vietic *k-paːs (→ Vietnamese vải & Muong pái).

Additionally, Schuessler suggests that the Austroasiatic word was the source of Sanskrit कर्पास (karpāsa) & Ancient Greek κάρπασος (kárpasos). Still, earlier Johnson & Decker (1980) stated that "the problem of etymological origin of karpāsa has not been resolved".

Pronunciation

Mandarin
(Standard)
(Pinyin): bù (bu⁴)

(Zhuyin): ㄅㄨˋ

(Chengdu, Sichuanese Pinyin): bu⁴
Cantonese (Jyutping): bou³
Hakka (Sixian, PFS): pu
Jin (Wiktionary): bu³
Northern Min (KCR): bio̤̿
Eastern Min (BUC): buó
Southern Min
(Hokkien, POJ): pò͘

(Teochew, Peng'im): bou³ / bu³
Wu (Wugniu)
- (Northern): ⁵pu

Mandarin
- (Standard Chinese)⁺
  - Hanyu Pinyin: bù
  - Zhuyin: ㄅㄨˋ
  - Tongyong Pinyin: bù
  - Wade–Giles: pu⁴
  - Yale: bù
  - Gwoyeu Romatzyh: buh
  - Palladius: бу (bu)
  - Sinological IPA ^(key): /pu⁵¹/
- (Chengdu)
  - Sichuanese Pinyin: bu⁴
  - Scuanxua Ladinxua Xin Wenz: bu
  - Sinological IPA ^(key): /pu²¹³/
Cantonese
- (Standard Cantonese, Guangzhou–Hong Kong)⁺
  - Jyutping: bou³
  - Yale: bou
  - Cantonese Pinyin: bou³
  - Guangdong Romanization: bou³
  - Sinological IPA ^(key): /pou̯³³/
Hakka
- (Sixian, incl. Miaoli and Meinong)
  - Pha̍k-fa-sṳ: pu
  - Hakka Romanization System: bu
  - Hagfa Pinyim: bu⁴
  - Sinological IPA: /pu⁵⁵/
Jin
- (Taiyuan)⁺
  - Wiktionary: bu³
  - Sinological IPA (old-style): /pu⁴⁵/
Northern Min
- (Jian'ou)
  - Kienning Colloquial Romanized: bio̤̿
  - Sinological IPA ^(key): /piɔ³³/
Eastern Min
- (Fuzhou)
  - Bàng-uâ-cê: buó
  - Sinological IPA ^(key): /puɔ²¹³/
Southern Min
- (Hokkien)
  - Pe̍h-ōe-jī: pò͘
  - Tâi-lô: pòo
  - Phofsit Daibuun: pox
  - IPA (Xiamen): /pɔ²¹/
  - IPA (Quanzhou): /pɔ⁴¹/
  - IPA (Zhangzhou): /pɔ²¹/
  - IPA (Taipei): /pɔ¹¹/
  - IPA (Kaohsiung): /pɔ²¹/
- (Teochew)
  - Peng'im: bou³ / bu³
  - Pe̍h-ōe-jī-like: pòu / pù
  - Sinological IPA ^(key): /pou²¹³/, /pu²¹³/

Note:

bou3 - vernacular;
bu3 - literary.

Wu
- (Shanghai):
  - Wugniu: ⁵pu
  - MiniDict: pu^去
  - Wiktionary Romanisation (Shanghai): ²pu
  - Sinological IPA (Shanghai): /pu³⁴/

Middle Chinese: puH

Rime
Character	布
Reading #	1/1
Initial (聲)	幫 (1)
Final (韻)	模 (23)
Tone (調)	Departing (H)
Openness (開合)	Open
Division (等)	I
Fanqie	愽故切
Baxter	puH
Reconstructions
Zhengzhang Shangfang	/puo^H/
Pan Wuyun	/puo^H/
Shao Rongfen	/po^H/
Edwin Pulleyblank	/pɔ^H/
Li Rong	/po^H/
Wang Li	/pu^H/
Bernard Karlgren	/puo^H/
Expected Mandarin Reflex	bù
Expected Cantonese Reflex	bou³

Old Chinese
(Baxter–Sagart): /*pˤa-s/

(Zhengzhang): /*paːs/

Baxter–Sagart system 1.1 (2014)
Character	布
Reading #	1/1
Modern Beijing (Pinyin)	bù
Middle Chinese	‹ pu^H ›
Old Chinese	/*pˁa-s/
English	cloth
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	布
Reading #	1/1
No.	3495
Phonetic component	父
Rime group	魚
Rime subdivision	0
Corresponding MC rime
Old Chinese	/*paːs/

Definitions

布

cloth; textiles (Classifier: 匹; 塊／块)
棉布 ― miánbù ― cotton cloth
to announce; to proclaim
宣布 ― xuānbù ― to declare, to proclaim, to announce
to spread
遍布 ― biànbù ― to be found everywhere, to be spread all over

烏雲密布／乌云密布 ― wūyúnmìbù ― overcast

老人臉上布滿了皺紋。 [MSC, trad.]
老人脸上布满了皱纹。 [MSC, simp.]
Lǎorén liǎn shàng bùmǎn le zhòuwén.
The old man's face is full of wrinkles.
to deploy; to set out
布署 ― bùshǔ ― to lay out; to deploy

布下圈套 ― bù xià quāntào ― to set up a trap

Descendants

→ Lao: ຜ້າ (phā, “cloth”)
→ Thai: ผ้า (pâa, “cloth”)