毋

contributes a sense of prohibition — telling someone not to do something · Kangxi radical 80

contributes a sense of prohibition — telling someone not to do something

毋 is written exactly like 母 "mother" — the kneeling woman with two dots for breasts — except that the two dots are joined into one long stroke that cuts straight through the body of the graph. The usual explanation is that this crossing stroke was added as a mark of "don't," a kind of cancellation line laid over an existing character, but whether 毋 really began as a modified 母 or 女 is not settled, and the origin of the graph is genuinely unclear. In the modern form the whole picture is that single slanting stroke slicing across the enclosed shape, which is also the only thing that separates it from 母 on the page.

毋 at a glance

Meaning

contributes a sense of prohibition — telling someone not to do something

Strokes

4

Kangxi radical

80

Frequently asked questions