卯

卯 U+536F, 卯 CJK UNIFIED IDEOGRAPH-536F ← 卮 [U+536E] CJK Unified Ideographs 印 → [U+5370]

See also: 卵, 卬, and 戼

Translingual

Etymology

A door (門) opened to spring.

Han character

卯 (radical 26 卩+3, 5 strokes, cangjie input 竹竹尸中 (HHSL), four-corner 7772₀, composition ⿰𠂎卩)

Derived characters

• 柳 留

Related characters

• 丣

References

• KangXi: page 159, character 5
• Dai Kanwa Jiten: character 2847
• Dae Jaweon: page 363, character 15
• Hanyu Da Zidian: volume 1, page 311, character 5
• Unihan data for U+536F

---

Chinese

simp. and trad.		卯

Glyph origin

Historical forms of the character 卯
Oracle bone script	Bronze inscriptions	Large seal script	Small seal script

Characters in the same phonetic series (卯) (Zhengzhang, 2003)
	Old Chinese
卯	*mruːʔ
昴	*mruːʔ
泖	*mruːʔ
茆	*mruːʔ, *m·ruʔ
奅	*m̥ʰruːs
窌	*m̥ʰruːs, *m·ruː, *m·rus
聊	*m·rɯːw
貿	*mlus
鄮	*mlus
劉	*m·ru
留	*m·ru, *m·rus
蒥	*m·ru
鶹	*m·ru
騮	*m·ru
榴	*m·ru
瑠	*ru
瘤	*m·ru, *m·rus
遛	*m·ru
鎦	*m·ru
飀	*m·ru
鰡	*m·ru
嵧	*m·ru
餾	*m·ru, *m·rus
瀏	*m·ru, *m·ruʔ
懰	*m·ru, *m·ruʔ
柳	*m·ruʔ
珋	*m·ruʔ
罶	*m·ruʔ
嬼	*m·ruʔ, *m·rus
溜	*m·rus
霤	*m·rus
廇	*m·rus
塯	*m·rus

This character was found in oracle bone scripts depicting a sacrifice (a human or animal body) that is cut in half. This kind of practice mainly happened in Shang dynasty and was gradually eliminated after Zhou's conquest of Shang, leading to obscurity of the character's original meaning.

Pronunciation

• Mandarin

  (Pinyin): mǎo (mao³)

  (Zhuyin): ㄇㄠˇ

• Cantonese (Jyutping): maau⁵
• Min Nan (POJ): báu

---

• Mandarin
  • (Standard Chinese, Beijing)⁺
    • Pinyin: mǎo
    • Zhuyin: ㄇㄠˇ
    • Wade-Giles: mao³
    • Gwoyeu Romatzyh: mao
    • IPA ^(key): /mɑʊ̯²¹⁴/
• Cantonese
  • (Standard Cantonese, Guangzhou)⁺
    • Jyutping: maau⁵
    • Yale: máauh
    • Cantonese Pinyin: maau⁵
    • Guangdong Romanization: mao⁵
    • IPA ^(key): /mɑːu̯¹³/
• Min Nan
  • (Hokkien)
    • Pe̍h-ōe-jī: báu
    • Tâi-lô: báu
    • Phofsit Daibuun: bao
    • IPA (Xiamen): /baʊ⁵³/
    • IPA (Quanzhou): /baʊ⁵⁵⁴/
    • IPA (Zhangzhou): /baʊ⁵³/
    • IPA (Taipei): /baʊ⁵³/
    • IPA (Kaohsiung): /baʊ⁴¹/

---

• Middle Chinese: /mˠau^X/▼

Rime
Character	卯
Reading #	1/1
Initial (聲)	明 (4)
Final (韻)	肴 (90)
Tone (調)	Rising (X)
Openness (開合)	Open
Division (等)	II
Fanqie	莫飽切
Reconstructions
Zhengzhang Shangfang	/mˠauX/
Pan Wuyun	/mᵚauX/
Shao Rongfen	/mauX/
Edwin Pulleyblank	/maɨwX/
Li Rong	/mauX/
Wang Li	/mauX/
Bernard Karlgren	/mauX/
Expected Mandarin Reflex	mǎo

• Old Chinese▼

  (Baxter-Sagart): /*mˤruʔ/

  (Zhengzhang): /*mruːʔ/

Baxter-Sagart system 1.1 (2014)
Character	卯
Reading #	1/1
Modern Beijing (Pinyin)	mǎo
Middle Chinese	‹ mæwX ›
Old Chinese	/*mˤruʔ/
English	4th earthly branch
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	卯
Reading #	1/1
No.	8871
Phonetic component	卯
Rime group	幽
Rime subdivision	1
Corresponding MC rime	卯
Old Chinese	/*mruːʔ/

Definitions

卯

1. fourth of twelve earthly branches (十二支)
2. rabbit (兔) of Chinese zodiac
3. period from 5-7 a.m.
4. early morning
5. mortise

Compounds

• 丁一卯二
• 卯上
• 卯勁／卯劲
• 卯後酒／卯后酒
• 卯時／卯时 (mǎoshí)
• 卯榫 (mǎosǔn)
• 卯正
• 卯眼 (mǎoyǎn)
• 卯睡
• 卯簿
• 卯足全力

• 卯酉
• 卯酉參辰／卯酉参辰
• 卯酉子午
• 卯酒
• 卯金刀
• 卯飯／卯饭
• 卯飲／卯饮
• 參辰卯酉／参辰卯酉
• 子午卯酉
• 子卯不樂／子卯不乐
• 寅吃卯糧／寅吃卯粮

• 寅支卯糧／寅支卯粮
• 應卯／应卯 (yìngmǎo)
• 應卯吃糧／应卯吃粮
• 應名點卯／应名点卯
• 打卯
• 書畫卯酉／书画卯酉
• 比卯
• 畫卯／画卯
• 脫卯／脱卯
• 點卯／点卯

---

Japanese

Kanji

卯

(“Jinmeiyō” kanji used for names)

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

Readings

• Goon: みょう (myō)
• Kan’on: ぼう (bō)
• Kun: う (u)

Compounds

• 卯酒 (ぼうしゅ) (bōshu)
• 卯酉線 (ぼうゆうせん) (bōyūsen)

Etymology 1

Kanji in this term
卯
う Jinmeiyō
kun'yomi

From 兎 (usagi, u, “rabbit”)

Pronunciation

• Kun’yomi
  • (Tokyo) う [ù] (Heiban - [0])
  • (Tokyo) う​ [úꜜ] (Atamadaka - [1])
  • IPA^(key): [ɯ̟ᵝ]
• Homophones: ウ, 鵜, 鰻, 有, 羽

Proper noun

卯 (hiragana う, rōmaji U)

1. the Rabbit, the fourth of the twelve Earthly Branches

Etymology 2

Kanji in this term
卯
ぼう Jinmeiyō
on'yomi

From Middle Chinese 卯 (mæw^X)

Proper noun

卯 (hiragana ぼう, rōmaji Bō, historical hiragana ばう)

1. the Rabbit, the fourth of the twelve Earthly Branches

---

Korean

Hanja

卯 • (myo) (hangeul 묘, revised myo, McCune-Reischauer myo)

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

---

Vietnamese

Han character

卯 (mão, mẫu, méo, Mẹo, mẻo)

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