Chinese Character Wiki
乃

nǎi

then

Original meaning: 

breast

Possibly depicts a woman standing sideways with her breasts protruding. Based on the original meaning "breast", now written as 奶. The current meaning is a phonetic loan.

Evolution

乃 Oracle script (~1250-1000 BC)

Oracle script

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

Bronze script

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

Seal script

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

Clerical script

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

Regular script

Modern
Definitions

乃  

nǎi

then; really, indeed; as it turned out, after all; namely; to be; thus; so; therefore; only; thereupon

乃 (廼) 

nǎi

variant of 乃[nǎi]

Most common words with 乃
Freq.
Word
Meaning

乃

to be

木乃伊

mummy (preserved corpse) (loanword)

乃至

and even

乃是

equivalent to either 是[shì] or 就是[jiù​shì]

康乃馨

carnation or clove pink

Component uses

Sound component in 7 characters (3 verified)

仍 奶 扔 氖 艿 鼐 尕

Iconic component in 1 character (1 verified)

奶

Historical pronunciation

Old Chinese

Middle Chinese

Pinyin

Gloss

*nˤə(ŋ)ʔ

nojX

nǎi

your

*nˤəʔ

nojX

nǎi

then


Statistics

Not found in HSK word list

Appears in 3.3477% of movies

2296th most common character in movies

1165th most common character in books

Miscellaneous

Strokes

2

Unicode

U+4E43

Shuowen

“ 乃，曳詞之難也。象气之出難。，古文乃。，籀文乃。”
Sources

季旭昇《說文新證》p.389

徐中舒《甲骨文字典》p.500-501



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