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See also: , 𭐴, and 𛁠
U+591A, 多
CJK UNIFIED IDEOGRAPH-591A

[U+5919]
CJK Unified Ideographs
[U+591B]

多 U+2F85D, 多
CJK COMPATIBILITY IDEOGRAPH-2F85D
夆
[U+2F85C]
CJK Compatibility Ideographs Supplement 夢
[U+2F85E]

Translingual

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Stroke order
6 strokes
Stroke order

Han character

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(Kangxi radical 36, +3, 6 strokes, cangjie input 弓戈弓戈 (NINI), four-corner 27207, composition )

Derived characters

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Descendants

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References

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  • Kangxi Dictionary: page 246, character 11
  • Dai Kanwa Jiten: character 5756
  • Dae Jaweon: page 489, character 6
  • Hanyu Da Zidian (first edition): volume 2, page 862, character 2
  • Unihan data for U+591A

Chinese

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Glyph origin

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

Ideogrammic compound (會意会意) – two pieces of meat (). In the bronze script, was corrupted into due to visual similarity, making into a duplication of . The form with was inherited in later scripts.

Chi (2010) suggests that meat is scarce in ancient times, so two pieces of meat is a lot, citing a passage from Mencius:

七十可以 [MSC, trad. and simp.]
Qīshí zhě kěyǐ shí ròu yǐ. [Pinyin]
Persons of seventy years may eat meat.

Chang Ping-chuan suggests that it is the duplicative nature of the character that gives the meaning of "many", just like in (“forest”), from (“tree; wood”).

Etymology 1

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trad.
simp. #
alternative forms 𡖈
𢑑

dur (doe1) Cantonese nonstandard

Etymology unclear. Schuessler (2007) suggests that it is in the same word family as (OC *tjaː, *tja, “many; all”) and (OC *hljaɡs, “many”).

Hill (2014, 2019) compares it to Tibetan ཆེ (che, big), མཐེ་བོ (mthe bo, thumb), Burmese တယ် (tai, very). STEDT derives the latter two from Proto-Sino-Tibetan *ta-j (big), whose Chinese comparandum is (OC *daːds, “large”) instead; Baxter (1992) has also compared it to this etymon.

Baxter and Sagart (1998) propose that there may be a prefix *t- in this word that gives a mass noun reading, which may nullify the connection to Proto-Sino-Tibetan *ta-j (big). However, Baxter and Sagart (2014) may have withdrawn from this theory since they no longer indicate the *t as a prefix.

Also compare Proto-Tai *ʰlaːjᴬ (many, much), whence Thai หลาย (lǎai, many) and Zhuang lai (many), and Proto-Hlai *hləːy (many) (Gong Qunhu, 2002; Schuessler, 2007; Baxter and Sagart, 2014). Schuessler (2007) considers the Chinese word to be from Kra-Dai, but others suggest that the direction of borrowing may have been the other way (Li, 1977; Baxter and Sagart, 1998; Norquest, 2007).

Pronunciation

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Note: duó - colloquial variant (“so, how, what”).
Note: doe1 - colloquial variant (“few”).
Note:
  • duói - vernacular;
  • dó - literary;
  • do̿ - limited (e.g. 多謝).
Note:
  • (Suzhounese) 1tou - literary;
  • (Suzhounese) 1ta - vernacular.

Rime
Character
Reading # 1/1
Initial () (5)
Final () (94)
Tone (調) Level (Ø)
Openness (開合) Open
Division () I
Fanqie
Baxter ta
Reconstructions
Zhengzhang
Shangfang
/tɑ/
Pan
Wuyun
/tɑ/
Shao
Rongfen
/tɑ/
Edwin
Pulleyblank
/ta/
Li
Rong
/tɑ/
Wang
Li
/tɑ/
Bernard
Karlgren
/tɑ/
Expected
Mandarin
Reflex
duō
Expected
Cantonese
Reflex
do1
BaxterSagart system 1.1 (2014)
Character
Reading # 1/1
Modern
Beijing
(Pinyin)
duō
Middle
Chinese
‹ ta ›
Old
Chinese
/*[t.l]ˁaj/
English many

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. 2637
Phonetic
component
Rime
group
Rime
subdivision
1
Corresponding
MC rime
Old
Chinese
/*ʔl'aːl/
Notes

Definitions

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  1. many; much; a lot of; numerous
    街上  ―  Jiēshàng yǒu hěn duō rén.  ―  There is a lot of people in the street
    Antonym:
  2. (after an amount) over; and more; more than
      ―  liǎng nián duō  ―  more than two years
  3. (after an amount but before the classifier) as much as
    100MB  ―  100 duō MB  ―  as much as 100 MB
    [Cantonese]  ―  sap6 gei2 do1 nin4 [Jyutping]  ―  so many decades
  4. (before a classifier) multiple
    Antonym:
    方面方面  ―  duō ge fāngmiàn  ―  multiple facets
  5. (used in comparison structure 得多, 多了) much more; a lot more; far more
      ―  Tā bǐ wǒ gāo de duō.  ―  He is a lot taller than I am.
    病人今天 [MSC, trad. and simp.]
    Bìngrén jīntiān hǎo duō le. [Pinyin]
    The patient is much better today.
  6. more
    應該運動 [MSC, trad.]
    应该运动 [MSC, simp.]
    Wǒ yīnggāi duō yùndòng. [Pinyin]
    I should exercise more.
    [Cantonese]  ―  kam2 do1 zoeng1 pei5 [Jyutping]  ―  put on one more blanket
    今天昨天穿外套 [MSC, trad. and simp.]
    Jīntiān bǐ zuótiān lěng, děi duō chuān yī jiàn wàitào. [Pinyin]
    Today is colder than yesterday, so you have to put on one more jacket.
  7. extra; in excess
    真係啤酒 [Cantonese, trad.]
    真系啤酒 [Cantonese, simp.]
    keoi5 zan1 hai6 hou2 ji6 zeoi3, jam2 do1 loeng5 bui1 be1 zau2 zau6 lam3 zo2 laa3. [Jyutping]
    He gets drunk really easily. He passed out after drinking a few extra glasses of beer.
  8. (used in question) how; how much; what
    學校距離 [MSC, trad.]
    学校距离 [MSC, simp.]
    Nǐ dào xuéxiào yào zǒu duō yuǎn de jùlí? [Pinyin]
    How far do you have to walk to get to school?
      ―  duō gāo?  ―  How tall are you?
  9. (emphasis in exclamations) so; how; what
    漂亮  ―  Kàn tā duō piàoliàng a!  ―  Look how pretty she is!
    帽子可愛 [MSC, trad.]
    帽子可爱 [MSC, simp.]
    Tā dài de màozǐ duō kě'ài ya! [Pinyin]
    What an adorable hat she is wearing! / The hat she is wearing is so adorable!
  10. to have a lot
  11. to have more; to have too much; to have too many
    [MSC, trad.]
    [MSC, simp.]
    Tā mǎi le sì zhāng piào, duō le yī zhāng. [Pinyin]
    He bought four tickets, which was one too many.
    屋企 [Cantonese, trad.]
    屋企 [Cantonese, simp.]
    uk1 kei2 do1 zo2 jat1 go3 jan4. [Jyutping]
    The household has a new member.
  12. (Cantonese) few; little
    [Cantonese]  ―  gam3 doe1 doe1 [Jyutping]  ―  just this much (meaning “just very few”)
Usage notes
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  • (over, more than): When the number is smaller or equal to 10, can be put after the measure word. If it is bigger than ten, has to be put before the measure word.
  • (more): In Mandarin, is usually placed before the verb, but in Cantonese, it is usually placed after the verb.
Synonyms
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  • (after an amount): (); (Hokkien, Teochew)

Compounds

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Descendants

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Sino-Xenic ():
  • Japanese: () (ta)
  • Korean: 다(多) (da)
  • Vietnamese: đa ()

Others:

Etymology 2

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trad.
simp. #

Pronunciation

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Definitions

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  1. (Southern Min, historical) Alternative form of (many)

Etymology 3

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trad.
simp. #

Pronunciation

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Definitions

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  1. (Cantonese) Short for 多士 (“toast”).
    奶油 [Cantonese]  ―  naai5 jau4 do1 [Jyutping]  ―  toast with condensed milk and butter

Japanese

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Kanji

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(Second grade kyōiku kanji)

  1. many, much

Readings

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Compounds

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Prefix

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() (ta-

  1. multi-
    ()(げん)()()(しょ)
    tagengojisho
    multilingual dictionary

Korean

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Hanja

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(eumhun 많을 (maneul da))

  1. hanja form? of (many, a lot of)

Compounds

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Okinawan

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Kanji

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(Second grade kyōiku kanji)

Readings

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Vietnamese

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Han character

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: Hán Nôm readings: đa, nhật

  1. chữ Hán form of đa (multi-, poly-).
  2. Nôm form of đi (to go, to walk).
  3. Nôm form of đa (banyan).
  4. Nôm form of da (banyan).
  5. Nôm form of da (skin).
  6. Nôm form of đưa (to hand, to give).