馬

Derived characters

 * Appendix:Chinese radical/馬

Glyph origin
– a horse with its head facing the left, showing a flowing mane in the wind. In the bronze inscriptions, the head was often simplified into an eye. The legs eventually evolved into four dots (, unrelated to ).

Contrast with, which saw a very different development, and (as in ), which is a hybrid: it has the legs of 馬  but the head of.

Etymology
“Horse” – from. The sense of “big” is derived from “horse”; compare the English uses of.

For the insect prefix sense, see. It has converged with the sense of “big”.

The surname is popularly known to be prevalent among Hui Muslims, where it is likely derived from, although the surname 馬 itself predates Islam.

Definitions

 * 1) horse
 * 2)  horse-shaped
 * 3)  knight; horse (sometimes only on the black side)
 * 4)  knight
 * 5)  horse race
 * 6) big prefix for nouns
 * 7)  to bully
 * 8)  to keep a straight face
 * 9)  subordinate
 * 1)  to bully
 * 2)  to keep a straight face
 * 3)  subordinate

Descendants
Others:

Kanji

 * 1) horse

Etymology 1


From. First attested in the  of 720.

The initial m sound was apparently emphasized, possibly similar to *mma, becoming then uma or muma, via processes also seen in the word. However, Pellard simply reconstructs and treats the mentioned processes as secondary.

The ma sound denoting "horse" is common to a number of languages of central Asia, where horses were first domesticated, which has led some to speculate about a possible cognate root (but no consensus on any kind of relation exists). Compare, , , , and and descendants such as  or. More at.

Noun

 * 1) a horse
 * 2)  a promoted bishop
 * 3) a sawhorse: a four-leg stand made of wood or iron for supporting other materials

Etymology 2
Shift from uma form, becoming more common starting from the Heian Period. This change later reverted, and muma is now considered obsolete.

Noun

 * 1)  a horse
 * 2) * c. 935 Tosa Nikki
 * "ja"
 * "ja"

- ふぢはらのときざね、ふなぢなれど、むまのはなむけす.


 * 1) * c. 935 Tosa Nikki
 * "ja"

- けふはあをむまをおもへど、かひなし.

Etymology 3
Possibly from preform *Nma, ultimately from.

Noun

 * 1)  a horse

Etymology 4
Possibly from preform *MCma, ultimately from.

Noun

 * 1)  a horse

Etymology 5
From. The, so a later borrowing. Compare 🇨🇬 where some of the readings show a shift from initial nasal to voiced plosive.

Affix

 * 1) horse

Etymology
First attested in the Liúqiú guăn yìyŭ (琉球館譯語), 1469-1470, as.

In turn, from, from.

Cognate with 🇨🇬.

Noun

 * 1) a horse