烏有

Hello, you have come here looking for the meaning of the word 烏有. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word 烏有, but we will also tell you about its etymology, its characteristics and you will know how to say 烏有 in singular and plural. Everything you need to know about the word 烏有 you have here. The definition of the word 烏有 will help you to be more precise and correct when speaking or writing your texts. Knowing the definition of烏有, as well as those of other words, enriches your vocabulary and provides you with more and better linguistic resources.
See also: 乌有

Chinese

a crow; black; not
a crow; black; not; empty; void
 
to have; there is; there are
to have; there is; there are; to exist; to be
 
trad. (烏有)
simp. (乌有)

Etymology

Literally “not-have”; a fictional character in 子虛賦.

Pronunciation


Noun

烏有

  1. (literary, figurative) nonexistent person or thing; naught; nothing

Derived terms

Japanese

Kanji in this term

Jinmeiyō
ゆう
Grade: 3
goon kan'on

Etymology

Ultimately from Middle Chinese 烏有 (MC 'u hjuwX). May be a learned borrowing from Chinese 烏有乌有 (wūyǒu), considering that this is first cited in Japanese to a text from 1375.[1]

Although this compound may appear to literally parse out to (crow) + (have), the character was also used phonetically in Chinese with a separate sense of none or not.

Pronunciation

Noun

()(ゆう) (uyūういう (uiu)?

  1. nonexistence, nothing

Synonyms

Idioms

References

  1. ^ Shōgaku Tosho (1988) 国語大辞典(新装版) [Unabridged Dictionary of Japanese (Revised Edition)] (in Japanese), Tōkyō: Shogakukan, →ISBN
  2. ^ Matsumura, Akira, editor (2006), 大辞林 [Daijirin] (in Japanese), Third edition, Tokyo: Sanseidō, →ISBN