么

See also 幺, and 麼

Translingual

Stroke order

Etymology

Originally a variant of 幺. This eventually gave rise to the compound 麽 (itself a variant of 麼), originally mó ("small") but later used for the interrogative particle me (as in 什麽 shénme, 怎麽 zěnme, etc.). The simplified form removes the 麻 component from me, but retains it in mó (as in 幺麽 yāomó, "insignificant").

Han character

么 (radical 4 丿+2, 3 strokes, cangjie input 竹戈 (HI), four-corner 2073₂, composition ⿱丿厶)

1. interrogative particle
2. repetition of a tune small
3. tender

References

• KangXi: page 82, character 3
• Dai Kanwa Jiten: character 121
• Dae Jaweon: page 165, character 9
• Hanyu Da Zidian: volume 1, page 33, character 2
• Unihan data for U+4E48

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Cantonese

Hanzi

么 (Yale mo1)

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Japanese

Kanji

么

Readings

• On: えう (eu)

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Korean

Hanja

么 (hangeul 요, revised yo, McCune-Reischauer yo)

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Mandarin

Hanzi

么 (simplified 幺, pinyin ma (ma5), me (me5), mǒ (mo3), mo (mo5), yāo (yao1), Wade-Giles ma⁵, *me⁵, mo³, mo⁵, yao¹)

• • Traditional equivalent: 麼, 麽

• Compounds:
  • 什么 what
  • 为什么 why
  • 怎么 how
  • 老么 informal manner of referring to the last (youngest) child in a family