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牡. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word
牡, but we will also tell you about its etymology, its characteristics and you will know how to say
牡 in singular and plural. Everything you need to know about the word
牡 you have here. The definition of the word
牡 will help you to be more precise and correct when speaking or writing your texts. Knowing the definition of
牡, as well as those of other words, enriches your vocabulary and provides you with more and better linguistic resources.
Translingual
Han character
牡 (Kangxi radical 93, 牛+3, 7 strokes, cangjie input 竹手土 (HQG), four-corner 24510, composition ⿰牛土)
Derived characters
References
- Kangxi Dictionary: page 697, character 11
- Dai Kanwa Jiten: character 19933
- Dae Jaweon: page 1110, character 1
- Hanyu Da Zidian (first edition): volume 3, page 1801, character 2
- Unihan data for U+7261
Chinese
Glyph origin
Ideogrammic compound (會意/会意) : 牛 (“cattle”) + 丄. Various explanations exist, some propose 丄 (here unrelated to 上) depicts a penis to represent “male”. Later 丄 came to be written 土. See also the etymology of this character.
Etymology
Austroasiatic (Schuessler, 2007). Compare Proto-Mon-Khmer *ɟm(oo)l (“male”) (whence Khmer ឈ្មោល (chmool, “to be male”)), Old Mon jmūr ~ jmur (“male (elephant)”), Proto-Waic *(k)mɔj (“(wild) ox; buffalo”), Proto-Vietic *mɔːlʔ (“person; human being”) (whence Vietnamese mọi (“savage; barbarian”), Muong mõl (“human being”)).
An oracle bone graph for this word shows a vertical stick on a horizontal ground, possibly because it had been intended for an obsolete homophone cognate with Proto-Vietic *c-mɔːlʔ (“digging stick”), which alongside "male" may derive from a stem represented in Old Khmer cval (“to enter; to penetrate; (of animals) to copulate”), Khmu (cmɔɔl, “to plant (rice) with a digging stick”), (crmɔɔl, “digging stick”) (ibid.; Ferlus, 1987). Schuessler (2007) further proposes a relationship with 畝 (OC *mɯʔ, “cropland; mu (a Chinese measuring unit for area)”) (ibid.); see there for more.
Pronunciation
Note: mau5 - dated variant.
Note:
- mū - vernacular;
- mēu - literary.
Baxter–Sagart system 1.1 (2014)
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Character
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牡
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Reading #
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1/1
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Modern Beijing (Pinyin)
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mǔ
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Middle Chinese
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‹ muwX ›
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Old Chinese
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/*m(r)uʔ/
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English
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male
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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.
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Zhengzhang system (2003)
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Character
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牡
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Reading #
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1/1
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No.
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9321
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Phonetic component
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牡
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Rime group
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幽
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Rime subdivision
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2
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Corresponding MC rime
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母
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Old Chinese
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/*mɯwʔ/
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Definitions
牡
- (obsolete) male of animals
- Synonyms: 雄 (xióng), 公 (gōng)
- Antonym: 牝 (pìn)
駉駉牡馬,在坰之野。 [Pre-Classical Chinese, trad.]
𬳶𬳶牡马,在坰之野。 [Pre-Classical Chinese, simp.]- From: The Classic of Poetry, c. 11th – 7th centuries BCE, translated based on James Legge's version
- Jiōngjiōng mǔ mǎ, zài jiōng zhī yě.
- Fat and large are the stallions ,
On the plains of the far-distant borders.
在獸則牡為陽而牝為陰;……。 [Classical Chinese, trad.]
在兽则牡为阳而牝为阴;……。 [Classical Chinese, simp.]- From: Shuoyuan, circa 1st century BCE
- Zài shòu zé mǔ wéi yáng ér pìn wéi yīn;.......
- Among quadrupeds, male are yang and female are yin; .
- (obsolete) male genitals
- (obsolete) bolt of door
- (obsolete) hill; hump
- Used in 牡蠣/牡蛎 (mǔlì, “oyster”).
Compounds
References
Japanese
Kanji
牡
(Jinmeiyō kanji)
- male
- oyster
Readings
Etymology
For pronunciation and definitions of 牡 – see the following entry.
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(This term, 牡, is an alternative spelling of the above term.)
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Korean
Hanja
牡 • (mo) (hangeul 모, revised mo, McCune–Reischauer mo, Yale mo)
- This term needs a translation to English. Please help out and add a translation, then remove the text
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Vietnamese
Han character
牡: Hán Nôm readings: mẫu
- This term needs a translation to English. Please help out and add a translation, then remove the text
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