昴

昴 U+6634, 昴 CJK UNIFIED IDEOGRAPH-6634 ← 昳 [U+6633] CJK Unified Ideographs 昵 → [U+6635]

Translingual

Han character

昴 (Kangxi radical 72, 日+5, 9 strokes, cangjie input 日竹竹中 (AHHL), four-corner 6072₇, composition ⿱日卯)

Derived characters

• 𭈾, 𭡧, 𨺸, 𪲺, 𮧠, 𩤶, 𩹡, 𮭅

References

• Kangxi Dictionary: page 494, character 6
• Dai Kanwa Jiten: character 13865
• Dae Jaweon: page 858, character 12
• Hanyu Da Zidian (first edition): volume 2, page 1503, character 2
• Unihan data for U+6634

Chinese

simp. and trad.		昴

Glyph origin

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

Pronunciation

• Mandarin

  (Pinyin): mǎo (mao³)

  (Zhuyin): ㄇㄠˇ

• Cantonese (Jyutping): maau⁵
• Puxian Min (Pouseng Ping'ing): bao³
• Southern Min

  (Hokkien, POJ): báu

  (Teochew, Peng'im): bhao²

---

• Mandarin
  • (Standard Chinese)⁺
    • Hanyu Pinyin: mǎo
    • Zhuyin: ㄇㄠˇ
    • Tongyong Pinyin: mǎo
    • Wade–Giles: mao³
    • Yale: mǎu
    • Gwoyeu Romatzyh: mao
    • Palladius: мао (mao)
    • Sinological IPA ^(key): /mɑʊ̯²¹⁴/
• Cantonese
  • (Standard Cantonese, Guangzhou–Hong Kong)
    • Jyutping: maau⁵
    • Yale: máauh
    • Cantonese Pinyin: maau⁵
    • Guangdong Romanization: mao⁵
    • Sinological IPA ^(key): /maːu̯¹³/
• Puxian Min
  • (Putian)
    • Pouseng Ping'ing: bao³
    • Sinological IPA ^(key): /pau⁴⁵³/
  • (Xianyou)
    • Pouseng Ping'ing: bao³
    • Sinological IPA ^(key): /pau³³²/
• Southern Min
  • (Hokkien)
    • Pe̍h-ōe-jī: báu
    • Tâi-lô: báu
    • Phofsit Daibuun: bao
    • IPA (Xiamen): /bau⁵³/
    • IPA (Quanzhou): /bau⁵⁵⁴/
    • IPA (Zhangzhou): /bau⁵³/
    • IPA (Taipei): /bau⁵³/
    • IPA (Kaohsiung): /bau⁴¹/
  • (Teochew)
    • Peng'im: bhao²
    • Pe̍h-ōe-jī-like: báu
    • Sinological IPA ^(key): /bau⁵²/

---

• Middle Chinese: maewX

Rime
Character	昴
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
Baxter	maewX
Reconstructions
Zhengzhang Shangfang	/mˠauX/
Pan Wuyun	/mᵚauX/
Shao Rongfen	/mauX/
Edwin Pulleyblank	/maɨwX/
Li Rong	/mauX/
Wang Li	/mauX/
Bernhard Karlgren	/mauX/
Expected Mandarin Reflex	mǎo
Expected Cantonese Reflex	maau5

• Old Chinese

  (Baxter–Sagart): /*mˤruʔ/

  (Zhengzhang): /*mruːʔ/

Baxter–Sagart system 1.1 (2014)
Character	昴
Reading #	1/1
Modern Beijing (Pinyin)	mǎo
Middle Chinese	‹ mæwX ›
Old Chinese	/*mˁruʔ/
English	the Pleiades
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	昴
Reading #	1/1
No.	8872
Phonetic component	卯
Rime group	幽
Rime subdivision	1
Corresponding MC rime	卯
Old Chinese	/*mruːʔ/

Definitions

昴

1. (～宿) (Chinese astronomy) Hairy Head Mansion (Pleiades) (one of Twenty-Eight Mansions)

Synonyms

• 留 (Liǔ)

Compounds

• 昴宿 (Mǎoxiù)
• 昴宿星團／昴宿星团 (Mǎoxiù xīngtuán)
• 昴降

 

Descendants

Sino-Xenic (昴):

• → Japanese: 昴(ぼう) (Bō)

References

• 莆田市荔城区档案馆 [Putian City Licheng District Archives], editor (2022), “昴”, in 莆仙方言文读字汇 [Puxian Dialect Literary Reading Dictionary] (overall work in Mandarin and Puxian Min), page 152.

Japanese

Kanji

昴

(Jinmeiyō kanji)

1. the Pleiades (star cluster)

Readings

• Go-on: みょう (myō)^{←めう (meu, historical)}
• Kan-on: ぼう (bō)^{←ばう (bau, historical)}
• Kun: すばる (subaru, 昴)、すまる (sumaru, 昴)
• Nanori: あき (aki)、こう (kō)^{←かう (kau, historical)}、たか (taka)、たかし (takashi)、のぼる (noboru)

Compounds

• 昴宿(ぼうしゅく) (Bōshuku)
• 昴星(ぼうせい) (Bōsei)
• 昴(あき)子(こ) (Akiko)

Etymology 1

Kanji in this term
昴
すばる Jinmeiyō
kun'yomi

Likely from Old Japanese, use of kanji in Japanese texts first appears in the Tango-no-kuni Fudoki (c. mid-8th century), phonetic spelling first attested in the Wamyō Ruijushō (938 CE).

By extension from 統ばる (subaru, “to bunch together; to unite”, intransitive), due to the way the stars in the constellation all cluster together. Compare 統べる (suberu, “to command”, transitive).

Pronunciation

• (Tokyo) すばる [súꜜbàrù] (Atamadaka – [1])
• IPA^(key): [sɨba̠ɾɯ̟]

Proper noun

昴(すばる) • (Subaru) 

1. (astronomy) the Pleiades star cluster, one of the Twenty-Eight Mansions

   Synonyms: プレアデス星団 (Pureadesu-seidan), 昴宿 (Bōshuku), 昴星 (Subaruboshi, Bōsei), 六連星 (Mutsuraboshi)

2. a female given name

Etymology 2

Kanji in this term
昴
すまる Jinmeiyō
kun'yomi

Likely from Old Japanese.

Possibly an allusion from 昴の玉 (sumaru no tama, literally “cluster of pearls”) referenced multiple times in the Kojiki (712 CE); probably the original form of Subaru above. (Can this⁽⁺⁾ etymology be sourced?) Compare the development of 皇 (sume-/sumera- → sube-/subera-, prefix of praise and respect to Shinto deities or an Emperor of Japan)

Proper noun

昴(すまる) • (Sumaru) 

1. (astronomy, regional) the Pleiades star cluster, one of the Twenty-Eight Mansions
2. a male given name

Etymology 3

Kanji in this term
昴
ぼう Jinmeiyō
kan'on

/bau/ → /bɔː/ → /boː/

From Middle Chinese 昴 (MC maewX).

Pronunciation

• (Tokyo) ぼー [bóꜜò] (Atamadaka – [1])
• IPA^(key): [bo̞ː]

Proper noun

昴(ぼう) • (Bō) ^{←ばう (Bau)?}

1. (Chinese astronomy) the Hairy Head constellation, one of the Twenty-Eight Mansions, corresponding to the Pleiades star cluster in English

   Synonyms: 昴宿 (Bōshuku), 昴星 (Bōsei)

   Hypernyms: 白虎, 二十八宿

Etymology 4

Kanji in this term
昴
たかし Jinmeiyō
irregular

Nominalization of classical adjective 高し (takashi), modern 高い (takai, “high”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [ta̠ka̠ɕi]

Proper noun

昴(たかし) • (Takashi) 

1. a male given name

Etymology 5

Kanji in this term
昴
のぼる Jinmeiyō
irregular

Nominalization of verb 上る, 登る (noboru, “to ascend, rise”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [no̞bo̞ɾɯ̟]

Proper noun

昴(のぼる) • (Noboru) 

1. a male given name

Korean

Hanja

昴 (eum 묘 (myo))

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

Vietnamese

Han character

昴: Hán Nôm readings: mão, máu

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