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Pictogram (象形) – an arrow (depicted in some versions in the oracle bones and then disappeared), tied to a thread, then tied to two wooden poles (originally depicted as 林).
Later borrowed phonetically to mean “no”. The derivative 拂 (OC *pʰɯd) stands for the original word.
Etymology 1
not (verb) him/her/it
Fusion of 不 (OC *pɯ, *pɯʔ, *pɯ', “not”) with 之 (OC *tjɯ, “third-person pronoun”) (Schuessler, 2007). The glyph conflated with 不 (MC pjuw|pjuwX|pjut) by the Han times, due to naming taboo. Its colloquial reading survives in the latter. See etymology of 不 for more.
Duan Yucai’s Commentary: "弗 is explained as 'correct.' Today, 矫 and 弗 are both written as 拂, and 弗 is mistakenly used to mean 'not.' This misunderstanding has persisted for a long time. The Gongyang Commentary states, '弗 signifies a profound form of not,' which retains the meaning of correction. In classical texts, 不 represents straightforward negation, while 弗 conveys indirect negation. 弗 and 不 are not interchangeable." So basically 弗 is “not exactly” or “not correctly” like an almost not.
In modern Standard Chinese, this character is almost entirely used for phonetic translations. The character mainly represents the phoneme /f/ in word-final and preconsonantal positions.
The characters 不 (bù) and 否 (fǒu) are far more commonly used to mean “no”.
According to Pan (2002), a labiodentalized and checked variant of 不 (OC *pɯ, *pɯʔ, *pɯ').
In certain varieties the initial has gained voicing and in some cases caused the word shifted to yang tones, either restricted to specific syntactical positions or in all contexts.
8veq - tonal innovation specific to urban Shanghainese, demonstrates same left-prominent tone sandhi pattern as tone 6 in chains of more than 3 character;
7veq - the character sandhis as tone 7 in urban Shanghainese and most Suburban Shanghainese varieties, sometimes also realised as depending on absence or presence of the /u/-/β/ merger often recognized as a shared innovation across suburban Shanghainese varieties.
勿, 弗 and 伐 are all characters that have been popular in representing the checked and labiodentalized series of negators, generally pronounced as /fəʔ/, /vəʔ/ or both depending on the exact variety. In historical literature, the exact choice of character varied between the topolects and the preferences of individual writers.
In some contemporary proposals aiming to standardize cross-topolectal writing in Wu, it is preferred that the voiced variants of the negator be written with 勿 and the unvoiced variants of the negator with 弗. This is often received somewhat inconsistently, however, and the choice between the variant characters remains largely a matter of personal preference.
For pronunciation and definitions of 弗 – see 費 (“to cost; to spend; to expend; to consume; to use; to exhaust; etc.”). (This character is the second-round simplified form of費).
Notes:
Simplified Chinese is mainly used in Mainland China, Malaysia, and Singapore.
Originally borrowed from Middle Chinese弗(*pjut), meaning either “not” or “a gust of wind”. Apparently later repurposed during the later Edo period for its phonetic value in translating the Dutchfluor(“fluorine”).
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