Chinese

媽

mā
mom; mum: an affectionate term for a mother
  • Phono-semantic compound 形聲
  • HSK 1
  • TOCFL 1
  • radical 女
  • 13 strokes

Etymology graph

  • inherited
  • borrowed
  • derived
  • parts
  • meaning component
  • sound component
  • related
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Origin

Phono-semantic compound (形聲 /形声, OC *maːʔ): semantic 女 + phonetic 馬 (OC *mraːʔ).

Colloquial form of 母 (OC *mɯʔ, “mother”), from Proto-Sino-Tibetan *mow (“woman, female”).

From Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Lineage

  • inheritedProto-Sino-Tibetan*mow “to work; to move”
  • meaningChinese女 “woman; (only of humans in Standard Chinese) female”
  • soundChinese馬 “horse (Classifier: 匹 m c; 隻／只 m c h mn; 條／条 h)”

Words built on it: 媽媽

Sources