do not

Originally written and pronounced the same as (mother). Later it was slightly altered so the two characters could be distinguished.

Evolution

毋 Bronze script Mid Western Zhou (~900 BC)

Bronze script

Mid Western Zhou (~900 BC)
毋 Seal script Shuowen (~100 AD)

Seal script

Shuowen (~100 AD)
毋 Clerical script Eastern Han dynasty (25-220 AD)

Clerical script

Eastern Han dynasty (25-220 AD)
毋 Regular script Modern

Regular script

Modern
Definitions

 

do not; not; surname; rad. 80; (literary) no; don't; to not have; nobody

 

surname Wu

Most common words with 毋
Freq.
Word
Meaning

don't

宁缺毋滥

better to have nothing (than substandard choice) (idiom); would prefer to go without than accept shoddy option

毋庸

no need for

毋宁

not as good as

少安毋躁

don't be impatient

Component uses

Meaning component in 1 character (1 verified)

Historical pronunciation

Old Chinese

Middle Chinese

Pinyin

Gloss

*mo

mju

don't


Statistics

Not found in HSK word list

Appears in 2.0183% of movies

3124th most common character in movies

2876th most common character in books

Miscellaneous

Strokes

4

Unicode

U+6BCB

Shuowen

“毋,止之也。从女,有奸之者。”


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