弩

弩 U+5F29, 弩 CJK UNIFIED IDEOGRAPH-5F29 ← 弨 [U+5F28] CJK Unified Ideographs 弪 → [U+5F2A]

Translingual

Han character

弩 (Kangxi radical 57, 弓+5, 8 strokes, cangjie input 女水弓 (VEN), four-corner 4720₇, composition ⿱奴弓)

References

• Kangxi Dictionary: page 358, character 3
• Dai Kanwa Jiten: character 9760
• Dae Jaweon: page 674, character 17
• Hanyu Da Zidian (first edition): volume 2, page 994, character 5
• Unihan data for U+5F29

Chinese

trad.		弩
simp. #		弩

Glyph origin

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

	Old Chinese
拿	*rnaː
拏	*rnaː
詉	*rnaː
蒘	*rnaː, *na
笯	*rnaː, *naː, *naːs
挐	*rnaː, *na
絮	*rnaːs, *nas, *snas, *nas
呶	*rnaːw
怓	*rnaːw
帑	*n̥ʰaːŋʔ, *naː
奴	*naː
砮	*naː, *naːʔ
駑	*naː
孥	*naː
努	*naːʔ
弩	*naːʔ
怒	*naːʔ, *naːs
袽	*na
帤	*na
女	*naʔ, *nas
籹	*naʔ
恕	*hnjas
如	*nja, *njas
茹	*nja, *njaʔ, *njas
洳	*nja, *njas
鴽	*nja
蕠	*nja
汝	*njaʔ
肗	*njaʔ

Phono-semantic compound (形聲／形声, OC *naːʔ) : phonetic 奴 (OC *naː) + semantic 弓 (“bow”).

Etymology

Compare Proto-Tibeto-Burman *s-na (“crossbow”), whence Drung tana, Naxi daqna.

Unger (1990) suggests a derivation from 努 (OC *naːʔ, “to tense; to exert”), as the crossbow shoots arrows by releasing elastic potential energy stored in its limbs. Ferlus (1999) cites Gernet's opinion that 砮 (OC *naː, *naːʔ, “stone arrow-tip”) had been semantically extended to mean the whole crossbow.

More likely, 弩 (OC *naːʔ) and Proto-Tibeto-Burman *s-na were Sinitic and Tibeto-Burman renditions of a Mainland Southeast Asian Wanderwort (Ratliff, 2010), possibly of Austroasiatic origin (Norman and Mei, 1976; Benedict, 1990; Schuessler, 2007). Compare other MSEA lexical items meaning "crossbow":

• Proto-Mon-Khmer *snaʔ, whence Vietnamese ná, Khmer ស្នា (snaa);
• Proto-Hmong-Mien *nhaᴮ, whence White Hmong hneev, Iu Mien hnaav;
• Proto-Tai *ʰnwɯəꟲ, whence Thai หน้าไม้ (nâa-máai), Lao ໜ້າໄມ້ (nā mai), Lü ᦐᦱᧉᦺᦙᧉ (ṅaa²may²).

Also compare Proto-Austronesian *panaq (“to shoot (an arrow)”) (cf. Proto-Mon-Khmer *paɲʔ) whence Malay panah, Tagalog panà, Hawaiian pana.

Pronunciation

• Mandarin

  (Pinyin): nǔ (nu³)

  (Zhuyin): ㄋㄨˇ

• Cantonese (Jyutping): nou⁵
• Southern Min (Hokkien, POJ): ló͘ / nó͘ / lō͘ / lǒ͘

---

• Mandarin
  • (Standard Chinese)⁺
    • Hanyu Pinyin: nǔ
    • Zhuyin: ㄋㄨˇ
    • Tongyong Pinyin: nǔ
    • Wade–Giles: nu³
    • Yale: nǔ
    • Gwoyeu Romatzyh: nuu
    • Palladius: ну (nu)
    • Sinological IPA ^(key): /nu²¹⁴/
• Cantonese
  • (Standard Cantonese, Guangzhou–Hong Kong)⁺
    • Jyutping: nou⁵
    • Yale: nóuh
    • Cantonese Pinyin: nou⁵
    • Guangdong Romanization: nou⁵
    • Sinological IPA ^(key): /nou̯¹³/
• Southern Min
  • (Hokkien: Xiamen, Quanzhou)
    • Pe̍h-ōe-jī: ló͘
    • Tâi-lô: lóo
    • Phofsit Daibuun: lor
    • IPA (Xiamen): /lɔ⁵³/
    • IPA (Quanzhou): /lɔ⁵⁵⁴/
  • (Hokkien: Zhangzhou)
    • Pe̍h-ōe-jī: nó͘
    • Tâi-lô: nóo
    • Phofsit Daibuun: nor
    • IPA (Zhangzhou): /nɔ̃⁵³/
  • (Hokkien: Xiamen)
    • Pe̍h-ōe-jī: lō͘
    • Tâi-lô: lōo
    • Phofsit Daibuun: lo
    • IPA (Xiamen): /lɔ²²/
  • (Hokkien: Quanzhou)
    • Pe̍h-ōe-jī: lǒ͘
    • Tâi-lô: lǒo
    • IPA (Quanzhou): /lɔ²²/

---

• Middle Chinese: nuX

Rime
Character	弩
Reading #	1/1
Initial (聲)	泥 (8)
Final (韻)	模 (23)
Tone (調)	Rising (X)
Openness (開合)	Open
Division (等)	I
Fanqie	奴古切
Baxter	nuX
Reconstructions
Zhengzhang Shangfang	/nuoX/
Pan Wuyun	/nuoX/
Shao Rongfen	/noX/
Edwin Pulleyblank	/nɔX/
Li Rong	/noX/
Wang Li	/nuX/
Bernard Karlgren	/nuoX/
Expected Mandarin Reflex	nǔ
Expected Cantonese Reflex	nou5

• Old Chinese

  (Baxter–Sagart): /*C.nˤaʔ/

  (Zhengzhang): /*naːʔ/

Baxter–Sagart system 1.1 (2014)
Character	弩
Reading #	1/1
Modern Beijing (Pinyin)	nǔ
Middle Chinese	‹ nuX ›
Old Chinese	/*C.nˁaʔ/
English	crossbow
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	弩
Reading #	1/1
No.	9607
Phonetic component	女
Rime group	魚
Rime subdivision	0
Corresponding MC rime	怒
Old Chinese	/*naːʔ/

Definitions

弩

1. crossbow

Compounds

• 劍拔弩張／剑拔弩张 (jiànbánǔzhāng)
• 勁弩／劲弩
• 幰弩 (xiǎnnǔ)
• 弓弩 (gōngnǔ)
• 弩弓
• 弩張劍拔／弩张剑拔
• 弩手 (nǔshǒu)
• 弩末
• 弩機／弩机
• 弩砲／弩炮 (nǔpào)
• 弩箙
• 弩箭
• 弩箭離絃／弩箭离弦
• 強弓硬弩／强弓硬弩 (qiáng gōng yìng nǔ)
• 強弩／强弩
• 強弩之末／强弩之末 (qiángnǔzhīmò)
• 張眉弩眼／张眉弩眼
• 彊弩之末／强弩之末 (qiángnǔzhīmò)
• 搭弩張弓／搭弩张弓
• 璅弩
• 硬弩強弓／硬弩强弓
• 負弩／负弩
• 負弩先驅／负弩先驱
• 踏弩

 

Japanese

Kanji

弩

(uncommon “Hyōgai” kanji)

1. crossbow
2. one of abbreviations for loanwords whose transcription begin with the syllable ド (Do). Especially, dreadnought.
   • 1916, Machida Shiro, 獨逸戰前の真相, Waseda University Press, page 129:

     獨逸に於ける最初の弩級戦艦はナッサウ、エストファーレンの二艦である

     The first dreadnought-class battleships in Germany are Nassau and Westfalen

Readings

• Go-on: ぬ (nu); の (no)
• Kan-on: ど (do)
• Kun: いしゆみ (ishiyumi, 弩); おおゆみ (ōyumi, 弩)^{←おほゆみ (ofoyumi, 弩, historical)}

Definitions

Kanji in this term
弩
おおゆみ Hyōgaiji
kun’yomi

For pronunciation and definitions of 弩 – see the following entry.

【大弓おおゆみ】 [noun] a longbow, a great bow [noun] (historical) a large stonebow

(This term, 弩, is an alternative spelling of the above term.)

Korean

Hanja

弩 • (no) (hangeul 노, revised no, McCune–Reischauer no, Yale no)

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

Vietnamese

Han character

弩: Hán Nôm readings: nỏ, nỗ, ná, nõ

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