呆

See also 騃, and 杏

Translingual

Etymology

Pictogram (象形) – a child (top is head, bottom is body with arms); variant of 子, notably in 保.

Originally had 十 on the bottom, current form graphically 口 + 木.

In sense “dull, stupid”, sense is from “child-like, simple like a child”.

Han character

呆 (radical 30 口+4, 7 strokes, cangjie input 口木 (RD), four-corner 6090₄, composition ⿱口木)

1. stay
2. dull
3. dull-minded, simple, stupid

Derived characters

• 保

Related characters

• 子

See also

• 杏

References

• KangXi: page 181, character 11
• Dai Kanwa Jiten: character 3395
• Dae Jaweon: page 399, character 10
• Hanyu Da Zidian: volume 1, page 585, character 11
• Unihan data for U+5446

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Cantonese

Hanzi

呆 (jyutping daai1, ngoi4, Yale daai1, ngoi4)

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Japanese

Kanji

呆 (uncommon “Hyōgai” kanji)

1. amazed, disgusted, shocked

Readings

• On: ほう (hō), ぼう (bō)
• Kun: あきる (呆る, akiru), あきれる (呆れる, akireru), ほける (呆ける, hokeru), ほうける (呆ける, hōkeru), ぼけ (呆け, boke), ぼける (呆ける, bokeru)

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Korean

Hanja

呆 (hangeul 매, 태, 보, revised mae, tae, bo, McCune-Reischauer mae, t'ae, po)

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Mandarin

Pronunciation

• Audio

  (file)

Hanzi

呆 (pinyin dāi (dai1), Wade-Giles dai¹), ai2

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Vietnamese

Han character

呆 (ngốc)