wù
must not
Original meaning:
cut throat
Depicts a knife (刀) cutting with drops of blood coming out, based on the original meaning "cut throat", now written as 刎. The current meaning is a phonetic loan.
Components
Evolution
Oracle script
(~1250-1000 BC)
Bronze script
Early Western Zhou (~1000 BC)
Seal script
Shuowen (~100 AD)
Clerical script
Eastern Han dynasty (25-220 AD)Regular script
ModernDefinitions
Most common words with 勿
Freq. | Word | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
do not | ||
same as 寧缺毋濫|宁缺毋滥[nìngquēwúlàn] | ||
to put something aside for the time being (idiom) |
Sources