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美

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary

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See also: 菐 and 実
美 U+7F8E, 美
CJK UNIFIED IDEOGRAPH-7F8E
← 羍
[U+7F8D] 		CJK Unified Ideographs 羏 →
[U+7F8F]

Translingual

More information Stroke order ...
More information Stroke order (Chinese) ...
More information Stroke order (Japan) ...

Han character

美 (Kangxi radical 123, 羊+3, 9 strokes, cangjie input 廿土大 (TGK), four-corner 80431, composition ⿱𦍌大)

Descendants

Derived characters

Additional Derived Characters
  • 𠸍, 𡎤, 𢱒, 𨺰, 𣈸, 𣖙, 𤧞, 𦝺, 𥈢, 𥠦, 𥻙, 𧶾, 𩋼, 𩝏, 𥖺
  • 𣮺, 𠝫, 𡮔, 𦎡, 𦫧, 𦏄, 𦎿, 𦏒, 𨷑, 𠁍, 𨸈
  • 𱞸, 𪻄, 𫞁, 𪹏, 𬒙, 𬗮, 𱺩, 𰌗, 𮠻, 𫘑, 𬘅, 𫖿, 𬩇, 𮭸
  • 𬙴, 𱻏, 𬙵, 𱻐, 𫅖, 𮊮, 𬙺, 𰭛, 𫝥, 𬮎, 𬙼, 𫅚, 𬙾, 𫅝, 𫅟, 𫅠, 𲉇, 𱻔

References

  • Kangxi Dictionary: page 951, character 10
  • Dai Kanwa Jiten: character 28435
  • Dae Jaweon: page 1393, character 17
  • Hanyu Da Zidian (first edition): volume 5, page 3126, character 5
  • Unihan data for U+7F8E


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Chinese

More information trad., simp. # ...

Glyph origin

More information Historical forms of the character 美, Shang ...
Characters in the same phonetic series (美) (Zhengzhang, 2003) 
More information Old Chinese ...

Pictogram (象形) – a person (大) wearing a headdress (now written 羊) of feathers or ram's horn.

The modern form could be considered an ideogrammic compound (會意 / 会意): 羊 (“ram or feathers”) + 大 (“person”).

See also 敖, 冒, and 免.

Etymology

From Proto-Sino-Tibetan *mwaj (“beautiful, well, perfectly”) (STEDT).

According to Schuessler (2007), cognate with Mizo mawi (“beautiful, lovely”), Jingpho moi (“perfectly, beautifully”) as well as Karbi me- (“be good”) and Jingpho cha mai (“good”); the former two items from *moy "beautiful" and the latter from *may "good, well", which were two roots reconstructed separately by Benedict (1972).

Pronunciation

Note: buei3/buai3 - used in place names (豐美).
Note:
  • mi2 - Chaoyang;
  • bhuê2 - used in some place names.
More information Rime, Character ...
More information Character, Reading # ...
More information Zhengzhang system (2003), Character ...

Definitions

美

  1. beautiful; pretty; attractive; good-looking
    美人  ―  měirén  ―  beautiful woman
    香港的夜景真美啊！ [MSC, trad. and simp.]
    Xiānggǎng de yèjǐng zhēn měi a! [Pinyin]
    Hong Kong's nightscape is so beautiful!
  2. delicious; tasty; flavoursome
    美食  ―  měishí  ―  culinary delicacy
  3. good; fine; satisfactory; happy
    美酒  ―  měijiǔ  ―  good wine
    價廉物美／价廉物美  ―  jiàliánwùměi  ―  to be attractive in price and quality
  4. to beautify; to prettify
    美容  ―  měiróng  ―  to improve one's appearance
  5. to praise; to commend
  6. (colloquial) to be pleased with oneself
    他不就是得了個一百分兒嗎？看把他美得！ [MSC, trad.]
    他不就是得了个一百分儿吗？看把他美得！ [MSC, simp.]
    Tā bù jiù shi dé le ge yī bǎi fēnr ma? Kàn bǎ tā měi de! [Pinyin]
    Didn't he just get a one hundred percent? Look at how pleased it made him!
  7. beautiful things; beauty
    藝術美／艺术美  ―  yìshù měi  ―  artistic beauty
    曲線美／曲线美  ―  qūxiàn měi  ―  (please add an English translation of this usage example)
  8. short for 美洲 (Měizhōu): America (a supercontinent)
    南美  ―  Nánměi  ―  South America
  9. short for 美國／美国 (Měiguó): America, United States (a country in North America)
    美籍華人／美籍华人  ―  Měi jí Huárén  ―  Chinese American
    中美關係／中美关系  ―  Zhōng Měi guānxì  ―  Sino-American relations
    美屬薩摩亞／美属萨摩亚  ―  Měishǔ Sàmóyà  ―  American Samoa
  10. a surname, Mei

Synonyms

Dialectal synonyms of 漂亮 (“good-looking; beautiful; pretty”) [map]
More information Variety, Location ...
  • (United States of America):
Dialectal synonyms of 美國 (“United States”) [map]
More information Variety, Location ...

Compounds

Descendants

Sino-Xenic (美):
  • → Japanese: 美(み) (mi); 美(び) (bi)
  • → Korean: 미(美) (mi)
  • → Vietnamese: mĩ (美)

References

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Japanese

Korean

Vietnamese

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