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

  (Hailu, HRS): meu^ˊ

• Eastern Min (BUC): mū / mēu
• Puxian Min (Pouseng Ping'ing): bou³
• 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–Macau)
    • 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/
  • (Hailu, incl. Zhudong)
    • Hakka Romanization System: meu^ˊ
    • Sinological IPA: /meu²⁴/
• Eastern Min
  • (Fuzhou)
    • Bàng-uâ-cê: mū / mēu
    • Sinological IPA ^(key): /mu³³/, /mɛu³³/

Note:

• mū - vernacular;
• mēu - literary.

• Puxian Min
  • (Putian)
    • Pouseng Ping'ing: bou³
    • Báⁿ-uā-ci̍: bô
    • Sinological IPA ^(key): /pɔu⁴⁵³/
  • (Xianyou)
    • Pouseng Ping'ing: bou³
    • Sinological IPA ^(key): /pɔu³³²/
• 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	/məuX/
Pan Wuyun	/məuX/
Shao Rongfen	/məuX/
Edwin Pulleyblank	/məwX/
Li Rong	/muX/
Wang Li	/məuX/
Bernhard Karlgren	/mə̯uX/
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	‹ muwX ›
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

1. (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；……。 [Traditional Chinese poetry, trad.]
     在兽则牡为阳而牝为阴；……。 [Traditional Chinese poetry, 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; [...].

2. (obsolete) male genitals
3. (obsolete) bolt of door
4. (obsolete) hill; hump
5. used in 牡蠣／牡蛎 (mǔlì, “oyster”)

Compounds

• 四牡
• 堅牡 / 坚牡
• 松葉牡丹 / 松叶牡丹
• 求牡
• 牝牡
• 牝牡驪黃 / 牝牡骊黄
• 牝雞牡鳴 / 牝鸡牡鸣
• 牡丹 (mǔdān)
• 牡丹亭
• 牡丹江 (Mǔdānjiāng)
• 牡丹花
• 牡菣 / 牡𬜤
• 牡蒿 (mǔhāo)
• 牡蠣 / 牡蛎 (mǔlì)
• 牡鹿
• 白牡丹 (báimǔdān)
• 秋牡丹
• 野牡丹
• 門牡 / 门牡
• 關牡 / 关牡
• 雉求牡匹

References

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

Japanese

Kanji

See also:

Category:Japanese terms spelled with 牡

牡

(Jinmeiyō kanji)

1. male
2. 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 Jinmeiyō
kun'yomi

Kanji in this term
牡
おす Jinmeiyō
kun'yomi

Kanji in this term
牡
おん Jinmeiyō
kun'yomi

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

【雄お】S [noun] (obsolete in isolation) man, male [noun] (obsolete) husband [noun] something large, powerful, or otherwise masculine [noun] yang (as opposed to yin) Alternative spellings 男, 夫 【雄おす】S [noun] a male (plant or animal) Alternative spelling オス 【雄おん】S [noun] male

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

References

• “^▲牡”, in 漢字ぺディア [Kanjipedia]‎ (in Japanese), The Japan Kanji Aptitude Testing Foundation, 2015–2025

Korean

Hanja

牡 • (mo) (hangeul 모, revised mo, McCune–Reischauer mo, Yale mo)

1. 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

1. This term needs a translation to English. Please help out and add a translation, then remove the text {{rfdef}}.