馬
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Translingual
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Stroke order (Hong Kong) | |||
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Han character
馬 (radical 187, 馬+0, 10 strokes, cangjie input 尸手尸火 (SQSF), four-corner 71327, composition ⿹⿺㇉⿻三丨灬)
- Kangxi radical #187, ⾺.
Derived characters
Related characters
References
- KangXi: page 1433, character 1
- Dai Kanwa Jiten: character 44572
- Dae Jaweon: page 1956, character 34
- Hanyu Da Zidian: volume 7, page 4539, character 1
- Unihan data for U+99AC
Chinese
Glyph origin
Historical forms of the character 馬 | |||||||||||
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Shang | Western Zhou | Spring and Autumn | Warring States | Shuowen Jiezi (compiled in Han) | Liushutong (compiled in Ming) | Libian (compiled in Qing) | |||||
Bronze inscriptions | Oracle bone script | Bronze inscriptions | Bronze inscriptions | Bronze inscriptions | Chu Slip and silk script | Qin slip script | Shizhoupian script | Ancient script | Small seal script | Transcribed ancient scripts | Clerical script |
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Characters in the same phonetic series (馬) (Zhengzhang, 2003) | |
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Old Chinese | |
馬 | *mraːʔ |
碼 | *mraːʔ |
罵 | *mraːʔ, *mraːs |
鷌 | *mraːʔ |
鰢 | *mraːʔ |
瑪 | *mraːʔ |
榪 | *mraːs |
傌 | *mraːs |
禡 | *mraːs |
媽 | *maːʔ |
Semi-cursive script | Cursive script |
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Pictogram (象形) – a horse with its head facing the left, showing a flowing mane in the wind. In the bronze inscriptions, the head was often simplified into an eye (目). The legs eventually evolved into four dots (灬, unrelated to 火).
Contrast with 鹿 (“deer”), which saw a very different development, and 𢊁 (as in 薦), which is a hybrid: it has the the legs of 馬 (灬) but the head of 鹿.
Etymology
trad. | 馬 | |
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simp. | 马 | |
variant forms |
“Horse” – from Proto-Sino-Tibetan *k-m-raŋ ~ s-raŋ. The sense of “big” is derived from “horse”; compare the English uses of horse.
For the insect prefix sense, see 螞. It has converged with the sense of “big”.
The surname is popularly known to be prevalent among Hui Muslims, where it is likely derived from Arabic مُحَمَّد (muḥammad, “Muhammad”).
Pronunciation
Definitions
馬
- horse (Classifier: 匹; 隻/只)
- horse-shaped
- (chess) knight
- (Chinese chess) knight; horse (on the black side)
- Original form of 碼/码 (mǎ, “chip for counting”).
- big (prefix for nouns)
- (Southwestern Mandarin, including Sichuan) to bully
- (Sichuan) to keep a straight face
- Prefix for names of insects, also written as 螞.
- Short for 馬祖/马祖 (Mǎzǔ).
- Short for 馬來西亞/马来西亚 (Mǎláixīyà).
- A surname.
- (~村) Ma (a village in Dongsong, Luoning, Luoyang, Henan, China)
Synonyms
Dialectal synonyms of 馬 (“horse”) [map] | ||
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Variety | Location | Words |
Classical Chinese | 馬 | |
Formal (Written Standard Chinese) | 馬 | |
Taxonomic name | 馬 | |
Mandarin | Beijing | 馬 |
Taiwan | 馬 | |
Harbin | 馬 | |
Jinan | 馬 | |
Muping | 馬 | |
Luoyang | 馬 | |
Wanrong | 馬 | |
Xi'an | 馬 | |
Xining | 馬, 達冒兒馬 | |
Yinchuan | 馬 | |
Lanzhou | 馬 | |
Ürümqi | 馬 | |
Wuhan | 馬 | |
Chengdu | 馬 | |
Guiyang | 馬, 馬兒 | |
Liuzhou | 馬 | |
Yangzhou | 馬 | |
Nanjing | 馬 | |
Hefei | 馬 | |
Cantonese | Guangzhou | 馬 |
Hong Kong | 馬 | |
Taishan | 馬 | |
Dongguan | 馬 | |
Gan | Nanchang | 馬 |
Lichuan | 馬 | |
Pingxiang | 馬 | |
Hakka | Meixian | 馬 |
Yudu | 馬 | |
Miaoli (N. Sixian) | 馬仔 | |
Liudui (S. Sixian) | 馬仔 | |
Hsinchu (Hailu) | 馬 | |
Dongshi (Dabu) | 馬 | |
Hsinchu (Raoping) | 馬 | |
Yunlin (Zhao'an) | 馬 | |
Huizhou | Jixi | 馬 |
Jin | Taiyuan | 馬兒, 馬 |
Min Bei | Jian'ou | 馬 |
Min Dong | Fuzhou | 馬 |
Matsu | 馬 | |
Min Nan | Xiamen | 馬 |
Quanzhou | 馬 | |
Zhangzhou | 馬 | |
Taipei | 馬 | |
Kaohsiung | 馬 | |
Tainan | 馬 | |
Taichung | 馬 | |
Wuqi | 馬 | |
Hsinchu | 馬 | |
Taitung | 馬 | |
Lukang | 馬 | |
Yilan | 馬 | |
Magong | 馬 | |
Penang | 馬 | |
Philippines (Manila) | 馬 | |
Chaozhou | 馬 | |
Haifeng | 馬 | |
Haikou | 馬 | |
Leizhou | 馬 | |
Wu | Shanghai | 馬 |
Suzhou | 馬 | |
Hangzhou | 馬 | |
Wenzhou | 馬 | |
Chongming | 馬 | |
Danyang | 馬 | |
Jinhua | 馬 | |
Ningbo | 馬 | |
Xiang | Changsha | 馬 |
Shuangfeng | 馬 | |
Loudi | 馬 |
Compounds
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Descendants
Others:
References
- “Entry #6822”, in 臺灣閩南語常用詞辭典 [Dictionary of Frequently-Used Taiwan Minnan] (in Chinese and Min Nan), Ministry of Education, R.O.C., 2011.
Japanese
Readings
Compounds
- 牛馬 (ushiuma): a small breed of horse, extinct since 1947
- 海馬 (umiuma): seahorse
- 牛馬 (gyūba): oxen and horses, beast of burden
- 海馬 (kaiba): seahorse; walrus; hippocampus
- 河馬 (kaba): hippopotamus, a hippo
- 縞馬 (shimauma), 斑馬 (shimauma): zebra
- 騸馬 (senba): gelding
- 馬酔木 (asebi), 馬酔木 (basuiboku): Japanese andromeda
- 馬面 (umazura): a horseface, a very long face; horse-faced, very long-faced
- 馬鹿 (baka): a fool, an idiot; foolish, idiotic, stupid
- 馬鹿力 (bakajikara): incredible strength; incredibly strong
- 馬脚 (bakyaku)
- 馬具 (bagu): horse harness, horse tack
- 馬券 (baken)
- 馬耳東風 (baji tōfū)
- 馬車 (basha): horse-drawn carriage, wagon or cart
- 馬糧 (baryō): horse feed
- 馬車馬 (bashauma)
- 馬術 (bajutsu): equestrianism, equestrian skills, horsemanship
- 馬上 (bajō): on horseback
- 馬尾 (babi): cauda equina
- 馬力 (bariki): horsepower
- 馬鈴薯 (bareisho): a potato (Solanum tuberosum)
- 馬簾 (baren)
- 子馬 (kouma): a baby horse, a foal
- 馬子 (mago): packhorse driver
- 馬手 (bashu), 馬手 (mete)
- 木馬 (mokuba): a wooden horse
- 馬陸 (yasude): millipede
- 騾馬 (raba): mule
- 驢馬 (roba): donkey
- 競馬 (keiba): a horse race
- 弓馬 (kyūba): archery and horsemanship
Etymology 1

Kanji in this term |
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馬 |
うま Grade: 2 |
kun’yomi |
From Old Japanese.[1] Recorded in the Nihon Shoki as having been brought over from the Korean peninsula kingdom of Baekje, with the earlier reading of ma. The initial m sound was apparently emphasized,[1][2] possibly similar to *mma, becoming then uma or muma, via processes also seen in the word 梅 (ume, mume, “plum”).
The ma sound denoting "horse" is common to a number of languages of central Asia, where horses were first domesticated, suggesting a possible cognate root. Compare Manchu ᠮᠣᡵᡳᠨ (morin, “horse”), Mongolian морь (morʹ, “horse”), Korean 말 (mal, “horse”), Mandarin 馬 (mǎ, “horse”), and Proto-Indo-European *márkos (“horse”) and descendants such as Irish marc (“horse”, archaic) or English mare (“female horse”). More at *márkos.
Noun
Etymology 2
Kanji in this term |
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馬 |
むま Grade: 2 |
kun’yomi |
Shift from uma form, becoming more common starting from the Heian Period. This change later reverted, and muma is now considered obsolete.
Noun
- (obsolete) a horse
- c. 759, Man'yōshū (book 20, poem 4372)
- 阿志加良能 美佐可多麻波理 可閇理美須 阿例波久江由久 阿良志乎母 多志夜波婆可流 不破乃世伎 久江弖和波由久 牟麻能都米 都久志能佐伎尓 知麻利為弖 阿例波伊波々牟 母呂々々波 佐祁久等麻乎須 可閇利久麻弖尓
- c. 935 Tosa Nikki
- ふぢはらのときざね、ふなぢなれど、むまのはなむけす。
- c. 935 Tosa Nikki
- けふはあをむまをおもへど、かひなし。
- c. 759, Man'yōshū (book 20, poem 4372)
Korean
Vietnamese
Han character
馬: Hán Việt readings: mã[1][2][3]
馬: Nôm readings: mở[1][2][3], mựa[1][2][4], mã[1][2], mả[1][2], mỡ[1], ngựa[2], mứa[4]
Compounds
- 兵馬 (binh mã)
Noun
馬 (mả)
- tomb; grave
- 1916: Nguyễn Đình Chiểu, Lục Vân Tiên, lines 921–922
小 童 庄 及 哙 㗍 /𦣰 陵 边 馬 哭 嘆 徘 徊 - Before the page has a chance to pay a visit, / He throws himself down upon the grave, crying, lamenting, fretting.
- 1916: Nguyễn Đình Chiểu, Lục Vân Tiên, lines 921–922
References
- Nguyễn (2014).
- Nguyễn et al. (2009).
- Trần (2004).
- Hồ (1976).