Chinese Character Wiki
不

bù

no

Original meaning: 

sepal

Pictograph of sepals of a flower. The modern meaning "no" is a phonetic loan.

Evolution

不 Oracle script (~1250-1000 BC)

Oracle script

(~1250-1000 BC)
不 Bronze script Early Western Zhou (~1000 BC)

Bronze script

Early Western Zhou (~1000 BC)
不 Seal script Shuowen (~100 AD)

Seal script

Shuowen (~100 AD)
不 Clerical script Eastern Han dynasty (25-220 AD)

Clerical script

Eastern Han dynasty (25-220 AD)
不 Regular script Modern

Regular script

Modern
Definitions

不  

bù

no, not; un-; negative prefix; (negative prefix); not; no

Most common words with 不
Freq.
Word
Meaning

不

not

不是

no

不过

only

不要

don't!

不能

cannot

Component uses

Meaning component in 4 characters (1 verified)

否 歪 甭 孬

Sound component in 5 characters (3 verified)

否 杯 盃 钚 罘

Simplified component in 4 characters (4 verified)

还 环 怀 坏

Historical pronunciation

Old Chinese

Middle Chinese

Pinyin

Gloss

*pə

pjuw

bù

not

*pə

pjuw

bù

不律 writing brush (pron. in Wú 吳 ap. Shuōwén; E. Hàn)


Statistics

HSK level 1

Appears in 100.0000% of movies

6th most common character in movies

4th most common character in books

Miscellaneous

Strokes

4

Unicode

U+4E0D

Shuowen

“不，鳥飛上翔不下來也。从一，一猶天也。象形。”


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