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Etymology data from Wiktionary via Wiktextract (CC BY-SA 4.0). Chinese character data from the 說文解字, the Taiwan MOE 國語辭典簡編本 (CC BY-ND 3.0 TW) and HSK/TOCFL lists.

Explanations are written by a local model (gemma4) and only published after a verification pass against the cited sources. How it works.

Chinese

舞

/u²¹⁴/
to dance (move rhythmically)
  • Phono-semantic compound 形聲
  • HSK 5
  • TOCFL 4
  • radical 舛
  • 14 strokes

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Origin

Phono-semantic compound (形聲 /形声, OC *maʔ): abbreviated phonetic 無 (OC *ma) + semantic 舛 (“steps, feet in convergent direction”). This character was coined to preserve the original meaning of 無, which is "dancing"; hence, the upper component also adds part of the meaning. A conservative variant is 𦨅.

Perhaps related to Tibetan བྲོ (bro, “dance (noun)”), or related to 巫 (OC *ma, “shaman”) (Schuessler, 2007).

From Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Lineage

  • soundChinese無 “to not have; there is not; there does not exist”
  • meaningChinese舛 “to be opposed to; to be contrary to; to deviate from”
    • ideaChinese夊 “of going, slow”
    • ideaChinese𡕒

Related: Tibetan བྲོ

Words built on it: 跳舞, 舞蹈

Meanings

character
  1. to dance (move rhythmically)
  2. dance (performance art); dancing (Classifier: 個／个 m; 支 m)
  3. to dance with something in one's hands
  4. to wield; to brandish; to shake
  5. to fly; to flutter
  6. to play with

Shuowen Jiezi 說文解字

舞：樂也。用足相背，从舛；無聲。

Xu Shen, c. 100 CE — the first analytical dictionary of Chinese characters.

國語辭典 definitions

  1. 一種配合音樂節奏活動身體、表演各種姿態的藝術。 例：跳舞、芭蕾舞、交際舞
  2. 配合音樂活動肢體。 例：載歌載舞、翩翩起舞
  3. 耍動、揮動。 例：舞刀、舞劍、手舞足蹈
  4. 飛揚、飛翔。 例：飛舞、眉飛色舞、龍飛鳳舞
  5. 賣弄、玩弄。 例：舞弊、舞文弄墨

© Ministry of Education, Taiwan — CC BY-ND 3.0 TW, shown unaltered.

How 舞 was written 字形演變

  1. 舞 in Oracle bone script
    Oracle bone
    甲骨文
    Shang, c. 1250–1050 BCE
  2. 舞 in Bronze script
    Bronze
    金文
    Shang–Zhou
  3. 舞 in Small seal script
    Small seal
    說文小篆
    Shuowen, c. 100 CE
  4. 舞 in Regular script
    Regular
    楷書
    since c. 200 CE

Historical forms collected by the legacy etymfun dataset; most characters have several attested variants.

Sources

  • Historical glyph forms (zdic.net 字形演变) — Rights unverified
  • HSK / TOCFL word lists — Facts (levels)
  • 教育部《國語辭典簡編本》 (Taiwan MOE) — CC BY-ND 3.0 TW
  • 說文解字 Shuowen Jiezi (Xu Shen, c. 100 CE) — Public domain
  • Written form — n/a
  • Wiktionary (via Wiktextract / kaikki.org) — CC BY-SA 4.0
  • Wiktionary: 舞