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mu

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary

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See also: μ, Μ, and Appendix:Variations of "mu"
Languages (43)
English
Abau • Albanian • Anguthimri • Asturian • Czech • Dutch • Estonian • Extremaduran • French • Hanga Hundi • Hausa • Ikobi-Mena • Indonesian • Italian • Japanese • Jingpho • Jurchen • Kapampangan • Kituba • Kom (Cameroon) • Malay • Mandarin • Northern Sami • Old Irish • Polish • Portuguese • Romanian • Scottish Gaelic • Serbo-Croatian • Slovak • Spanish • Sumerian • Swedish • Tày • Tooro • Turkish • Tzotzil • Vietnamese • Volapük • West Makian • Yoruba • Zou
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English

English Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia
Ancient Greek alphabet
←
lambda
 →
nu
Μ μ
Ancient Greek: μῦ
Wikipedia article on mu

Etymology 1

From Ancient Greek μῦ (mû), derived from Phoenician 𐤌𐤌 (mm /⁠mem⁠/, “water”). Doublet of mem.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /mjuː/, /muː/
  • Audio (US):(file)
  • Rhymes: -uː
  • Homophones: mew (first pronunciation only), moo (second pronunciation only)

Noun

mu (countable and uncountable, plural mus)

  1. The 12th letter of the Modern Greek alphabet.
Derived terms
Translations
See also

Etymology 2

From Japanese 無 (mu, “nothing, neither yes nor no”).

Pronunciation

(Can we verify(+) this pronunciation?)

Interjection

mu

  1. (Zen Buddhism) Neither yes nor no.
    • 1974, Robert M[aynard] Pirsig, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry into Values, New York, N.Y.: William Morrow & Company, →ISBN:
      Mu means "no thing." Like "Quality" it points outside the process of dualistic discrimination. Mu simply says, "No class; not one, not zero, not yes, not no." […] It's a great mistake, a kind of dishonesty, to sweep nature's mu answers under the carpet.
    • 1979, Douglas Hofstadter, Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid:
      Achilles: Oh, but MU is Jōshū’s answer. By saying MU, Jōshū let the other monk know that only by not asking such questions can one know the answer to them.
      Tortoise: Jōshū “unasked” the question. […]
      Achilles: […] And the answer of “MU” here rejects the premises of the question, which are that one or the other must be chosen.
    • 1996, Dan Simmons, “Looking for Kelly Dahl”, in The Year's Best Science Fiction, page 424:
      "Mu," said Kelly Dahl.
      On one level mu means only yes, but on a deeper level of Zen it was often used by the master when the acolyte asked a stupid, unanswerable or wrongheaded question such as "Does a dog have the Buddha-nature?" The Master would answer only, "Mu," meaning—I say "yes" but mean "no," but the actual answer is: Unask the question.
    • 2002, Norman Waddell, Masao Abe, The Heart of Dōgen's Shōbōgenzō, page 72:
      The Fifth Patriarch's utterance You say mu [Buddha-nature] because Buddha-nature is emptiness articulates clearly and distinctly the truth that emptiness is not "no". In uttering Buddha-nature-emptiness one does not say "half a pound." One does not say "eight ounces." One says "mu."
    • 2010, Joan Price, Sacred Scriptures of the World Religions, page 70:
      A monk once asked Master Joshu, 'Has a dog the Buddha Nature or not?' Joshu said, 'Mu!'

Noun

mu (uncountable)

  1. (Zen Buddhism) Nothingness; nonexistence; the illusory nature of reality.
    • 2012, Omori, Introduction To Zen Training, →ISBN, page 115:
      That being the case, we should naturally choose to contemplate mu from morning to night, forgetting everything.
    • 2012, Dr Robert Wilkinson, Nishida and Western Philosophy, →ISBN:
      Consequently, though mu is mindlike, the likeness to individual consciousness cannot be pushed very far.
    • 2013, Sean Murphy, Natalie Goldberg, One Bird, One Stone: 108 Contemporary Zen Stories, →ISBN, page xvii:
      The monk posed to Chaoi-chou a question: Does a dog have a buddha nature or not?" Chao-chou, without a moment's hesitation, answered, “Mu." (Translated as "No.")
    • 2013, Maura O'Halloran, Pure Heart, Enlightened Mind, →ISBN:
      If mu is mind, consciousness, it is nothing.
Usage notes

Used to answer a question that if answered with "yes" or "no" would imply something false.

Synonyms

See also

  • (non-affirmative, non-negative answer): n/a

Etymology 3

From Mandarin 畝／亩 (mǔ).

Noun

mu (plural mu)

  1. A unit of surface area, currently equivalent to two-thirtieths of a hectare.
    • [1959 September, Tung Ta-lin [董大林], “The Inevitability of Quick Transition from Lower to Higher Stage of Agricultural Co-operation”, in Agricultural Co-operation in China [中国农业合作化的道路] (China Knowledge Series)‎, 2nd edition, Peking: Foreign Languages Press, →OCLC, page 72:
      The Lucky Star Co-operative in Chuwo County on the plains of southern Shansi had, before the anti-Japanese war, 26 wells, 4 water-wheels and 166.1 mou of irrigated fields, 4.82 per cent of its total arable land.]
    • [1965 July 9 [1965 June 7], “Chienchiang County Reports Increase in Crops”, in Daily Report: Foreign Radio Broadcasts‎, number 131, Foreign Broadcast Information Service, sourced from Wuhan Domestic Service, →OCLC, page DDD 2‎:
      Good news on the summer harvest prevailed in the countryside of Chienchiang County, Hupeh. The county reported remarkable increased in its 600,000 mou of summer food crops this year, surpassing the yield in 1962 which was considered as the best year.]
    • 2004, Peter Ho, “The Wasteland Auction Policy in Northwest China: Solving Environmental Degradation and Rural Poverty?”, in Rural Development in Transitional China: The New Agriculture‎, →ISBN, →ISSN, →LCCN, →OCLC, →OL, page 125‎:
      Pengyang county was administered by Guyuan before 1988. In contrast to Guyuan, Pengyang is relatively wealthy. Farmers earn a considerable income through tobacco cultivation, which can yield an annual gross income of Rmb 1,500-2,000 per mu. In 1996, the cultivated area of tobacco in Pengyang was 11,000 mu.⁷
    • 2007, Chang Liu, Peasants and Revolution in Rural China: Rural Political Change in the North China Plain and the Yangzi Delta, 1850-1949, page 87:
      Of 114 village farming families, only ten had more than 30 mu of land and only five had more than 60 mu.

Anagrams

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Abau

Pronunciation

Noun

mu class I gender m

  1. crocodile

References

  • Lock, Arnold Hugo. 2011. Abau Grammar. Data Papers on Papua New Guinea Languages 57. Ukarumpa, Papua New Guinea: SIL-PNG Academic Publications. Available online.
    • p.63 (masculine gender noted)
    • p.67, Table 21 (listed under Class 1, Masculine).

Albanian

Pronoun

mu

  1. dialectal form of mua

Anguthimri

Noun

mu

  1. (Mpakwithi) buttocks

References

  • Terry Crowley, The Mpakwithi dialect of Anguthimri (1981), page 187

Asturian

Interjection

mu

  1. moo (sound made by a cow or bull)

Czech

Pronunciation

Pronoun

mu

  1. singular dative of on
    Řekni mu, že jím. ― Tell him, I am eating.
  2. singular dative of ono

Synonyms

Dutch

Etymology

From Ancient Greek μῦ (mû). Doublet of mem and majem.

Pronunciation

Noun

mu m (plural mu's, diminutive muutje n)

  1. mu (letter of the Greek alphabet)

Further reading

Estonian

Pronoun

mu

  1. genitive singular of ma

Usage notes

  • Used unstressed in a sentence. When the pronoun is stressed, minu (genitive of mina) is used.

Extremaduran

Adverb

mu

  1. very

See also

French

Pronunciation

Noun

mu m (plural mu)

  1. mu (Greek letter)

Participle

mu (feminine mue, masculine plural mus, feminine plural mues)

  1. post-1990 spelling of mû

Further reading

Hanga Hundi

Noun

mu

  1. (a) crocodile

Further reading

Hausa

Etymology

Cognates include Mangas mun, Polci mii, Miship mun.

Pronunciation

Pronoun

mū

  1. we (1st person plural pronoun)

See also

More information independent pronouns, singular ...
* The default tone of the direct object pronouns is high, but it usually changes to low immediately after a high tone, unless that high tone is part of a verb with a high-low-high pattern.
See also the Hausa possessive pronouns.

Ikobi-Mena

Noun

mu (Mena), mụ (Ikobi)

  1. water

References

Indonesian

Pronoun

mu

  1. (proscribed) alternative spelling of -mu

Italian

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /ˈmu/
  • Rhymes: -u
  • Hyphenation: mù

Noun

mu m or f (invariable)

  1. the name of the letter M

Japanese

Romanization

mu

  1. The hiragana syllable む (mu) or the katakana syllable ム (mu) in Hepburn romanization.

Jingpho

Etymology

Borrowed from Burmese မူး (mu:).

Noun

mu

  1. two anna bit

References

  • Kurabe, Keita (31 December 2016), “Phonology of Burmese loanwords in Jinghpaw”, in Kyoto University Linguistic Research‎, volume 35, →DOI, →ISSN, pages 91–128

Jurchen

Noun

mu

  1. water

References

  • Gisaburō Norikura Kiyose, A Study of the Jurchen Language and Script: Reconstruction and Decipherment (1977)

Kapampangan

Alternative forms

Etymology

From Proto-Malayo-Polynesian *-mu (2sg. possessor and agent of passive verb). Compare Malay -mu, Tagalog mo.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /ˈmu/ [ˈmu]
  • Hyphenation: mu

Adjective

mu

  1. second person singular possessive adjective; your

See also

More information absolute, ergative ...

Adverb

mu

  1. only; just; one; all
    Synonyms: man, metung, basta, kabud, tangi

Derived terms

Kituba

Pronoun

mu

  1. I

Kom (Cameroon)

Etymology 1

Noun

mu

  1. water

Etymology 2

Adjective

mu

  1. old

References

  • Randy Jones, Provisional Kom - English lexicon (2001, Yaoundé, Cameroon)

Malay

Pronoun

mu

  1. alternative spelling of -mu

Mandarin

Romanization

mu

  1. nonstandard spelling of mū
  2. nonstandard spelling of mú
  3. nonstandard spelling of mǔ
  4. nonstandard spelling of mù

Usage notes

  • Transcriptions of Mandarin into the Latin script often do not distinguish between the critical tonal differences employed in the Mandarin language, using words such as this one without indication of tone.

Northern Sami

Pronunciation

  • (Kautokeino) IPA(key): /ˈmuː/

Pronoun

mū

  1. accusative/genitive of mun

Old Irish

Pronunciation

Determiner

mu (triggers lenition)

  1. alternative form of mo (“my”)

Polish

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /ˈmu/
  • Audio:(file)
  • Rhymes: -u
  • Syllabification: mu

Etymology 1

Alternative forms

Pronoun

mu m

  1. dative singular mute of on

Pronoun

mu n

  1. dative singular mute of ono

See also

Etymology 2

Onomatopoeic.

Interjection

mu

  1. moo (sound made by cows and bulls)
Derived terms
noun
  • muczenie
verb

Further reading

  • mu in Polish dictionaries at PWN

Portuguese

Pronunciation

  • Rhymes: -u
  • Hyphenation: mu

Etymology 1

Inherited from Old Galician-Portuguese muu, from Latin mūlum (“mule”). Doublet of mulo.

Noun

mu m (plural mus)

  1. mule
    Synonym: mulo

Etymology 2

Learned borrowing from Ancient Greek μῦ (mû).

Noun

mu m (plural mus)

  1. mu (Greek letter)
  2. synonym of muão, múon (“muon”)

Etymology 3

Onomatopoeic.

Alternative forms

Interjection

mu

  1. moo (the call of a cow)

Romanian

Etymology

Onomatopoeic.

Interjection

mu

  1. moo (sound made by cows)

Scottish Gaelic

Serbo-Croatian

Slovak

Spanish

Sumerian

Swedish

Tày

Tooro

Turkish

Tzotzil

Vietnamese

Volapük

West Makian

Yoruba

Zou

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