牡

See also: 牝

牡	U+7261, 牡 CJK UNIFIED IDEOGRAPH-7261

← 牠
[U+7260]

CJK Unified Ideographs

牢 →
[U+7262]

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

𪋂, 𧚒

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

simp. and trad.		牡

Glyph origin

Historical forms of the character 牡
Shang	Western Zhou	Shuowen Jiezi (compiled in Han)	Liushutong (compiled in Ming)
Oracle bone script	Bronze inscriptions	Small seal script	Transcribed ancient scripts

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 [script needed] (cmɔɔl, “to plant (rice) with a digging stick”), [script needed] (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

Mandarin
(Pinyin): mǔ (mu³)

(Zhuyin): ㄇㄨˇ
Cantonese (Jyutping): maau⁵ / mau⁵
Hakka (Sixian, PFS): méu
Eastern Min (BUC): mū / mēu
Southern Min
(Hokkien, POJ): bó͘

(Teochew, Peng'im): bhou²

Mandarin
- (Standard Chinese)⁺
  - Hanyu Pinyin: mǔ
  - Zhuyin: ㄇㄨˇ
  - Tongyong Pinyin: mǔ
  - Wade–Giles: mu³
  - Yale: mǔ
  - Gwoyeu Romatzyh: muu
  - Palladius: му (mu)
  - Sinological IPA ^(key): /mu²¹⁴/
Cantonese
- (Standard Cantonese, Guangzhou–Hong Kong)
  - Jyutping: maau⁵ / mau⁵
  - Yale: máauh / máuh
  - Cantonese Pinyin: maau⁵ / mau⁵
  - Guangdong Romanization: mao⁵ / meo⁵
  - Sinological IPA ^(key): /maːu̯¹³/, /mɐu̯¹³/

Note: mau5 - dated variant.

Hakka
- (Sixian, incl. Miaoli and Neipu)
  - Pha̍k-fa-sṳ: méu
  - Hakka Romanization System: meu^ˋ
  - Hagfa Pinyim: meu³
  - Sinological IPA: /meu̯³¹/
Eastern Min
- (Fuzhou)
  - Bàng-uâ-cê: mū / mēu
  - Sinological IPA ^(key): /mu³³/, /mɛu³³/

Note:

mū - vernacular;
mēu - literary.

Southern Min
- (Hokkien)
  - Pe̍h-ōe-jī: bó͘
  - Tâi-lô: bóo
  - Phofsit Daibuun: bor
  - IPA (Xiamen): /bɔ⁵³/
  - IPA (Quanzhou): /bɔ⁵⁵⁴/
  - IPA (Zhangzhou): /bɔ⁵³/
  - IPA (Taipei): /bɔ⁵³/
  - IPA (Kaohsiung): /bɔ⁴¹/
- (Teochew)
  - Peng'im: bhou²
  - Pe̍h-ōe-jī-like: bóu
  - Sinological IPA ^(key): /bou⁵²/

Middle Chinese: muwX

Rime
Character	牡
Reading #	1/1
Initial (聲)	明 (4)
Final (韻)	侯 (137)
Tone (調)	Rising (X)
Openness (開合)	Open
Division (等)	I
Fanqie	莫厚切
Baxter	muwX
Reconstructions
Zhengzhang Shangfang	/məu^X/
Pan Wuyun	/məu^X/
Shao Rongfen	/məu^X/
Edwin Pulleyblank	/məw^X/
Li Rong	/mu^X/
Wang Li	/məu^X/
Bernhard Karlgren	/mə̯u^X/
Expected Mandarin Reflex	mǒu
Expected Cantonese Reflex	mau⁵

Old Chinese
(Baxter–Sagart): /*m(r)uʔ/

(Zhengzhang): /*mɯwʔ/

Baxter–Sagart system 1.1 (2014)
Character	牡
Reading #	1/1
Modern Beijing (Pinyin)	mǔ
Middle Chinese	‹ muw^X ›
Old Chinese	/*m(r)uʔ/
English	male
Notes for Old Chinese notations in the Baxter–Sagart system: * Parentheses "()" indicate uncertain presence; * Square brackets "[]" indicate uncertain identity, e.g. [t] 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	牡
Reading #	1/1
No.	9321
Phonetic component	牡
Rime group	幽
Rime subdivision	2
Corresponding MC rime	母
Old Chinese	/*mɯwʔ/

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. 11^th – 7^th centuries BCE, translated based on James Legge's version
  Jiōngjiōng mǔ mǎ, zài jiōng zhī yě. [Pinyin]
  Fat and large are the stallions [/ male horses],
  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 1^st century BCE
  Zài shòu zé mǔ wéi yáng ér pìn wéi yīn;....... [Pinyin]
  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

“牡”, in 漢語多功能字庫 (Multi-function Chinese Character Database)‎^[1], 香港中文大學 (the Chinese University of Hong Kong), 2014–

Japanese

Kanji

牡

(Jinmeiyō kanji)

male
oyster

Readings

Go-on: む (mu)、も (mo)
Kan-on: ぼう (bō)
Kan’yō-on: ぼ (bo)
Kun: おす (osu, 牡)、お (o, 牡)、おん (on, 牡)

Etymology

Kanji in this term
牡
おす Jinmeiyō
kun'yomi

For pronunciation and definitions of 牡 – see the following entry.

【雄おす】S

[noun] a male (plant or animal)

Alternative spelling
オス

(This term, 牡, is an alternative spelling of the above term.)

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 {{rfdef}}.

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 {{rfdef}}.