午

See also: 牛 and 干

Translingual

Stroke order

Stroke order

Han character

午 (Kangxi radical 24, 十+2, 4 strokes, cangjie input 人十 (OJ) or 難人十 (XOJ), four-corner 8040₀, composition ⿱𠂉十 or ⿰丿干)

References

• Kangxi Dictionary: page 156, character 4
• Dai Kanwa Jiten: character 2703
• Dae Jaweon: page 354, character 1
• Hanyu Da Zidian (first edition): volume 1, page 406, character 1
• Unihan data for U+5348

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Chinese

simp. and trad.		午

Glyph origin

Historical forms of the character 午
Shang	Western Zhou	Shuowen Jiezi (compiled in Han)	Liushutong (compiled in Ming)
Oracle bone script	Bronze inscriptions	Small seal script	Transcribed ancient scripts

Characters in the same phonetic series (午) (Zhengzhang, 2003) 

	Old Chinese
卸	*sŋjaːs
汻	*hŋaːŋʔ
滸	*hŋaːʔ
午	*ŋaːʔ
仵	*ŋaːʔ
旿	*ŋaːʔ
忤	*ŋaːs
迕	*ŋaːs
杵	*ŋ̊ʰjaʔ
籞	*ŋaʔ
蘌	*ŋaʔ
篽	*ŋaʔ
禦	*ŋaʔ, *ŋas
許	*hŋaʔ
御	*ŋas

Pictogram (象形) – in the form of a pestle (杵 (chǔ)).

Etymology 1

Norman (1985) proposed connection with Austroasiatic; Ferlus (2013) noted a "[g]ood correspondence" between Proto-Vietic *m-ŋəːʔ (whence Vietnamese ngựa) and Old Chinese reconstructions like *m-qʰˁaʔ (Baxter-Sagart) and *ᵀs.ŋaʔ (Ferlus).

Alternatively, Smith (2011) proposed 午 (OC ŋaaʔ)'s cognacy with 啎 (OC *ŋaas) "to meet head on" and 御 (OC *ŋraas) "to meet in (battle)" and suggested that "the moon at its full phase opposes the sun directly in the sky, meaning *ŋaaʔ 午 is probably to be glossed, given *-ʔ , ‘facing stage’". Schuessler (2007) regarded 午 (OC ŋâh) "to go against" as a mere graphic variant of 啎 and thus deemed the sense "to go against" distinct from the "earthly branch" sense.

Pronunciation

• Mandarin

  (Pinyin): wǔ (wu³)

  (Zhuyin): ㄨˇ

• Cantonese (Jyutping): ng⁵
• Southern Min

  (Hokkien, POJ): gó͘ / ngó͘ / gō͘

  (Teochew, Peng'im): ngou²

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• Mandarin
  • (Standard Chinese)⁺
    • Hanyu Pinyin: wǔ
    • Zhuyin: ㄨˇ
    • Tongyong Pinyin: wǔ
    • Wade–Giles: wu³
    • Yale: wǔ
    • Gwoyeu Romatzyh: wuu
    • Palladius: у (u)
    • Sinological IPA ^(key): /u²¹⁴/
• Cantonese
  • (Standard Cantonese, Guangzhou–Hong Kong)
    • Jyutping: ng⁵
    • Yale: ńgh
    • Cantonese Pinyin: ng⁵
    • Guangdong Romanization: ng⁵
    • Sinological IPA ^(key): /ŋ̍¹³/
• Southern Min
  • (Hokkien: Quanzhou)
    • Pe̍h-ōe-jī: gó͘
    • Tâi-lô: góo
    • Phofsit Daibuun: gor
    • IPA (Quanzhou): /ɡɔ⁵⁵⁴/
  • (Hokkien: General Taiwanese, Xiamen, Zhangzhou)
    • Pe̍h-ōe-jī: ngó͘
    • Tâi-lô: ngóo
    • Phofsit Daibuun: ngor
    • IPA (Taipei, Xiamen, Zhangzhou): /ŋɔ̃⁵³/
    • IPA (Kaohsiung): /ŋɔ̃⁴¹/
  • (Hokkien: General Taiwanese)
    • Pe̍h-ōe-jī: gō͘
    • Tâi-lô: gōo
    • Phofsit Daibuun: go
    • IPA (Taipei, Kaohsiung): /ɡɔ³³/

Note:

• gó͘/ngó͘ - literary;
• gō͘ - vernacular.

• (Teochew)
  • Peng'im: ngou²
  • Pe̍h-ōe-jī-like: ngóu
  • Sinological IPA ^(key): /ŋou⁵²/

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• Middle Chinese: nguX

Rime
Character	午
Reading #	1/1
Initial (聲)	疑 (31)
Final (韻)	模 (23)
Tone (調)	Rising (X)
Openness (開合)	Open
Division (等)	I
Fanqie	疑古切
Baxter	nguX
Reconstructions
Zhengzhang Shangfang	/ŋuoX/
Pan Wuyun	/ŋuoX/
Shao Rongfen	/ŋoX/
Edwin Pulleyblank	/ŋɔX/
Li Rong	/ŋoX/
Wang Li	/ŋuX/
Bernard Karlgren	/ŋuoX/
Expected Mandarin Reflex	wǔ
Expected Cantonese Reflex	ng5

• Old Chinese

  (Baxter–Sagart): /*[m].qʰˤaʔ/, /*m-qʰˤaʔ/

  (Zhengzhang): /*ŋaːʔ/

Baxter–Sagart system 1.1 (2014)
Character	午	午
Reading #	1/2	2/2
Modern Beijing (Pinyin)	wǔ	wǔ
Middle Chinese	‹ nguX ›	‹ nguX ›
Old Chinese	/*[m].qʰˁaʔ/	/*m-qʰˁaʔ/
English	7th earthly branch	resist; cross-wise
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	午
Reading #	1/1
No.	13169
Phonetic component	午
Rime group	魚
Rime subdivision	0
Corresponding MC rime	五
Old Chinese	/*ŋaːʔ/

Definitions

(deprecated template usage) 午

1. the seventh of twelve earthly branches:
   1. (historical or astrology) the seventh year of the Jovian orbital cycle
   2. (archaic) the fifth month of the Chinese traditional calendar
   3. (historical or archaic) the "Chinese" or "double hour" from 11 am to 1 pm
   4. noon (precisely)

Coordinate terms

• Template:list:earthly branches/zh

Hypernyms

• (as an earthly branch): 地支 (dìzhī)
• (as precisely noon): 小時／小时 (xiǎoshí), 時候／时候 (shíhou)

Etymology 2

For pronunciation and definitions of 午 – see 舞 (“to dance; dance; dancing; etc.”). (This character is the second-round simplified form of 舞).

Notes: Simplified Chinese is mainly used in Mainland China, Malaysia, and Singapore. Traditional Chinese is mainly used in Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan.

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Japanese

Kanji

午

(grade 2 “Kyōiku” kanji)

1. noon

Readings

• Go-on: ご (go, Jōyō)
• Kan-on: ご (go, Jōyō)
• Kun: うま (uma, 午)

Etymology 1

Kanji in this term
午
うま Grade: 2
kun'yomi

From 馬 (uma, “horse”)

Pronunciation

• Homophone: 馬

Proper noun

午(うま) • (Uma) 

1. the Horse, the seventh of the twelve Earthly Branches

Etymology 2

Kanji in this term
午
ご Grade: 2
on'yomi

From Middle Chinese 午 (ngu^X)

Proper noun

午(ご) • (Go) 

1. the Horse, the seventh of the twelve Earthly Branches

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Korean

Hanja

午 (eumhun 낮 오 (nat o))

1. This term needs a translation to English. Please help out and add a translation, then remove the text {{rfdef}}.

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Vietnamese

Han character

午: Hán Nôm readings: ngọ, ngỏ, ngõ

1. This term needs a translation to English. Please help out and add a translation, then remove the text {{rfdef}}.