# 牡

| 牡 | U+7261, &#29281; 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 2451$_0$, 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
### 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 (mu$^3$)
    (Zhuyin): ㄇㄨˇ
* Cantonese (Jyutping): maau$^5$ / mau$^5$
* Hakka
    (Sixian, PFS): méu
    (Hailu, HRS): meu$^ˊ$
* Eastern Min (BUC): mū / mēu
* Puxian Min (Pouseng Ping'ing): bou$^3$
* Southern Min
    (Hokkien, POJ): bó͘
    (Teochew, Peng'im): bhou$^2$
* Mandarin
** (Standard Chinese)
*** Hanyu Pinyin: mǔ
*** Zhuyin: ㄇㄨˇ
*** Tongyong Pinyin: mǔ
*** Wade–Giles: mu$^3$
*** Yale: mǔ
*** Gwoyeu Romatzyh: muu
*** Palladius: му (mu)
*** Sinological IPA : /mu²¹⁴/
* Cantonese
** (Standard Cantonese, Guangzhou–Hong Kong)
*** Jyutping: maau$^5$ / mau$^5$
*** Yale: máauh / máuh
*** Cantonese Pinyin: maau$^5$ / mau$^5$
*** Guangdong Romanization: mao$^5$ / meo$^5$
*** Sinological IPA : /maːu̯¹³/, /mɐu̯¹³/
* Hakka
** (Sixian, incl. Miaoli and Neipu)
*** Pha̍k-fa-sṳ: méu
*** Hakka Romanization System: meu$^ˋ$
*** Hagfa Pinyim: meu$^3$
*** Sinological IPA: /meu̯³¹/
** (Hailu, incl. Zhudong)
*** Hakka Romanization System: meu$^ˊ$
*** Sinological IPA: /meu²⁴/
* Eastern Min
** (Fuzhou)
*** Bàng-uâ-cê: mū / mēu
*** Sinological IPA : /mu³³/, /mɛu³³/
* mū - vernacular;
* mēu - literary.
* 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 | mau$^5$ |
* 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)
    From: The Classic of Poetry, c. 11th – 7th 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.
    From: Shuoyuan, circa 1st 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

* 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

(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 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.) :

## 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}}.