U+5974, 奴
CJK UNIFIED IDEOGRAPH-5974

[U+5973]
CJK Unified Ideographs
[U+5975]

Translingual

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Han character

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(Kangxi radical 38, +2, 5 strokes, cangjie input 女水 (VE), four-corner 47440, composition )

Derived characters

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Descendants

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References

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  • Kangxi Dictionary: page 254, character 26
  • Dai Kanwa Jiten: character 6039
  • Dae Jaweon: page 517, character 3
  • Hanyu Da Zidian (first edition): volume 2, page 1024, character 7
  • Unihan data for U+5974

Chinese

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trad.
simp. #
alternative forms

Glyph origin

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Historical forms of the character
Shang Western Zhou Warring States Shuowen Jiezi (compiled in Han) Liushutong (compiled in Ming)
Oracle bone script Bronze inscriptions Chu slip and silk script Small seal script Transcribed ancient scripts
         

Ideogrammic compound (會意会意) : (woman) + (hand) – a hand capturing and ordering a woman around. (OC *naʔ, *nas) may also be phonetic.

Some oracle bone script forms (not depicted above) are pictographic (象形) , showing a person (probably a woman) with hands crossed at the back, as opposed to which depicts a woman clasping her hands in front of the body.

Etymology

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Uncertain.

  • Possibly cognate with Mru nar (servant) & Awa-Khumi Chin tana (Löffler, 1960);
  • Ferlus (1999) relates this to (OC *naʔ), which has semantic parallel, especially among foreign loans (e.g. (OC *dɯː, “servant, slave woman”) which is possibly from Austroasiatic).
  • Unger (1990) groups (OC *naː) as well as (OC *naːʔ, “to tense, to exert”), (OC *naːʔ, “crossbow”), & (OC *naːs, “angry”), in a word-family with the basic meaning "tense", hence (OC *naː)'s meaning "press into service".

Pronunciation

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  • Dialectal data
Variety Location
Mandarin Beijing /nu³⁵/
Harbin /mu²⁴/
Tianjin /nu⁴⁵/
Jinan /mu⁴²/
Qingdao /nu⁴²/
Zhengzhou /nu⁴²/
Xi'an /nou²⁴/
Xining /nv̩²⁴/
Yinchuan /nu⁵³/
Lanzhou /lu⁵³/
Ürümqi /mu⁵¹/
Wuhan /nəu²¹³/
Chengdu /nu³¹/
Guiyang /nu²¹/
Kunming /nu³¹/
Nanjing /lu²⁴/
Hefei /lu⁵⁵/
Jin Taiyuan /nəu¹¹/
Pingyao /nəu¹³/
Hohhot /nəu³¹/
Wu Shanghai /nu²³/
Suzhou /nəu³¹/
Hangzhou /no²¹³/
Wenzhou /nɤu³¹/
Hui Shexian /lu⁴⁴/
Tunxi /ləu⁴⁴/
Xiang Changsha /ləu¹³/
Xiangtan /nəɯ¹²/
Gan Nanchang /lu⁴⁵/
Hakka Meixian /nu¹¹/
Taoyuan /mu¹¹/
Cantonese Guangzhou /nou²¹/
Nanning /nu²¹/
Hong Kong /nou²¹/
Min Xiamen (Hokkien) /lɔ³⁵/
Fuzhou (Eastern Min) /nu⁵³/
Jian'ou (Northern Min) /nu³³/
Shantou (Teochew) /nõu⁵⁵/
Haikou (Hainanese) /nu³¹/
/nɔu³¹/

Rime
Character
Reading # 1/1
Initial () (8)
Final () (23)
Tone (調) Level (Ø)
Openness (開合) Open
Division () I
Fanqie
Baxter nu
Reconstructions
Zhengzhang
Shangfang
/nuo/
Pan
Wuyun
/nuo/
Shao
Rongfen
/no/
Edwin
Pulleyblank
/nɔ/
Li
Rong
/no/
Wang
Li
/nu/
Bernhard
Karlgren
/nuo/
Expected
Mandarin
Reflex
Expected
Cantonese
Reflex
nou4
BaxterSagart system 1.1 (2014)
Character
Reading # 1/1
Modern
Beijing
(Pinyin)
Middle
Chinese
‹ nu ›
Old
Chinese
/*nˁa/
English slave

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
Reading # 1/1
No. 9600
Phonetic
component
Rime
group
Rime
subdivision
0
Corresponding
MC rime
Old
Chinese
/*naː/

Definitions

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  1. slave; servant
  2. (humble, polite) I
    爹娘生下沒有照管 [MSC, trad.]
    爹娘生下没有照管 [MSC, simp.]
    From: 白光 (báiguāng)《嘆十聲》
    diēniáng shēngxià jiù méiyǒu zhàoguǎn [Pinyin]
    (please add an English translation of this usage example)
  3. (derogatory) a person associated with a particular identity or trait
  4. to enslave

Synonyms

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  • (I):

Compounds

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Japanese

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Kanji

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(Jōyō kanji)

  1. a thing, an object; (derogatory, familiar) a person

Readings

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  • Go-on: (nu) (nu, historical)
  • Kan-on: (do, Jōyō) (do, historical)
  • Kun: やっこ (yakko, )やつ (yatsu, ) (me, )
  • Nanori: ぬい (nui)

Etymology 1

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Kanji in this term
やつ
Grade: S
kun'yomi
For pronunciation and definitions of – see the following entry.
やつヤツ
[noun] (colloquial, impolite) fellow, chap, guy
[pronoun] (colloquial, impolite) he, she
(This term, , is an alternative spelling of the above term.)

Etymology 2

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Kanji in this term
やっこ
Grade: S
kun'yomi
For pronunciation and definitions of – see the following entry.
やっこ
[noun] servant, valet, footman
(This term, , is an alternative spelling of the above term.)


Etymology 3

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Kanji in this term

Grade: S
kun'yomi
For pronunciation and definitions of – see the following entry.
[suffix] [from early 1300s] : derogatory suffix attached to people's names or words that refer to people, animals, etc.
(This term, , is an alternative spelling (uncommon) of the above term.)


Korean

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Hanja

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(eumhun (jong no))

  1. hanja form? of (slave, servant)

Vietnamese

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Han character

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: Hán Nôm readings: , no, , nọ

  1. (colloquial) he, she, it

Usage notes

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  • Chữ Nôm.
  • This is the common form of this character. The regular form is .
  • The term is de facto used to refer to any animal (including the human) in the third person, in a disrespectful manner. The use of the term to translate the English it, or to refer to an inanimate object, is rather artificial, and mostly found in awkward (but common) translation of other languages.

References

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