夫

夫 (radical 37, 大+1, 4 strokes, cangjie input 手人 (QO), four-corner 5003₀, composition ⿻二人 or ⿻一大)

• 替 賛 (top simplified from 竝 and 兟)

• KangXi: page 248, character 11
• Dai Kanwa Jiten: character 5835
• Dae Jaweon: page 507, character 1
• Hanyu Da Zidian: volume 1, page 521, character 1
• Unihan data for U+592B

Historical forms of the character 夫
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) : 大 (“man”) + 一 (“hairpin”) – a man with a hairpin in his hair.

In ancient times, when men reached the age of 20, they bound their hair with a hairpin during the Guan Li ceremony. The hairpin is the sign of “a grownup man”.

From Proto-Sino-Tibetan *p/ba (“male, father, third-person pronoun”). Cognate with Tibetan པ (pa, “masculine noun suffix”), Burmese ဖ (hpa., “masculine noun suffix”). Possibly related to 父 (OC *paʔ, *baʔ, “father”).

夫

1. male adult; man
2. husband

   丈夫  ―  zhàngfū  ―  husband

   夫婦 / 夫妇  ―  fūfù  ―  married couple

3. person
4. manual worker

   農夫 / 农夫  ―  nóngfū  ―  peasant

   漁夫 / 渔夫  ―  yúfū  ―  fisherman

“That”. Schuessler (2007) connects this with Proto-Loloish *m-ba (“on the other side”), Tibetan ཕ (pha, “beyond, farther on, onward”). Maybe related to 彼 (OC *pralʔ, “that”).

夫

1. ^† A generic personal pronoun – he; she; it; they.
2. ^† A generic demonstrative pronoun – this; that; these; those.

   夫人不言，言必有中。 [Classical Chinese, trad. and simp.]

   From: The Analects of Confucius, circa 475 – 221 BCE, translated based on James Legge's version

   Fú rén bù yán, yán bì yǒu zhōng. [Pinyin]

   This man seldom speaks; when he does, he is sure to hit the point.

   微夫人之力不及此。 [Classical Chinese, trad. and simp.]

   From: Commentary of Zuo, circa 4^th century BCE

   Wēi fú rén zhī lì bù jí cǐ. [Pinyin]

   Without that person's support, I would not be who I am today.

3. ^† Sentence-initial particle which introduces a topic.

   夫將者，國之輔也。 [Classical Chinese, trad.]
   夫将者，国之辅也。 [Classical Chinese, simp.]

   From: The Art of War, circa 5^th century BCE

   Fú jiàng zhě, guó zhī fǔ yě. [Pinyin]

   The general is the country's defense.

4. ^† Sentence-final particle, meaning “Is it not?”.
5. ^† Meaningless particle in the middle of a sentence.

(grade 4 “Kyōiku” kanji)

1. man
2. husband
3. that, those

• Go-on: ふ (fu, Jōyō); ぶ (bu)
• Kan-on: ふ (fu, Jōyō)
• Kan’yō-on: ふう (fū, Jōyō, uncommon)
• Kun: おっと (otto, 夫, Jōyō)^{←をつと (wotuto, historical)}; それ (sore, 夫れ)
• Nanori: お (o); と (to); ゆう (yū); よ (yo)

• Kun’yomi
  • (Tokyo) おっと [òttó] (Heiban – [0])[1][2][3]
  • IPA^(key): [o̞t̚to̞]

夫 (hiragana おっと, rōmaji otto, historical hiragana をつと)

1. (humble) (one's own) husband

• Kun’yomi
  • (Tokyo) つ​ま [tsúꜜmà] (Atamadaka – [1])[3]
  • IPA^(key): [t͡sɨᵝma̠]

夫 (hiragana つま, rōmaji tsuma)

1. spouse, consort

夫 • (bu) (hangeul 부)

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

夫 (phu)

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