勿

Glyph origin
– blood on a knife; the original character of. Phonetically borrowed for the negative particle since the time of the oracle bone script.

Etymology 1

 * do not (verb) him/her/it!
 * Fusion of with.

Definitions

 * 1)  do not; don't
 * 2)  not
 * 1)  not
 * 1)  not

Etymology 2
According to, developed from a labiodentalized and checked variant of.

In certain varieties the initial has gained voicing and in some cases caused the word shifted to yang tones, either restricted to specific syntactical positions or in all contexts.

See also.

Definitions

 * 1)  not

Usage notes

 * In Urban Shanghainese, 勿 has the same tone sandhi as the light departing (陽去) tone, as opposed to the expected light checked (陽入) tone. This had developed from a stage in which the character had the dark checked (陽入) tone and the voiced initial of /β~v/, reflecting a transitional stage in the character's gain of voicing in Shanghai. The dark checked tone sandhi pattern is still preserved in more conservative urban lects, as well as the majority of non-urban Shanghainese varieties.
 * , and  are all characters that have been popular in representing the checked and labiodentalized series of negators, generally pronounced as /fəʔ/, /vəʔ/ or both depending on the exact variety. In historical literature, the exact choice of character varied between the topolects and the preferences of individual writers.
 * In some contemporary proposals aiming to standardize cross-topolectal writing in Wu, it is preferred that the voiced variants of the negator be written with and the unvoiced variants of the negator with . This is often received somewhat inconsistently, however, and the choice between the variant characters remains largely a matter of personal preference.

Kanji

 * 1) negation
 * 2) prohibition

Compounds

 * : too good, wasteful
 * : of course, certainly
 * : unexpected gain, bonanza, windfall

Noun

 * 1) must not, do not, be not

Hanja