Etymology

From Proto-Sino-Tibetan *s-maŋ ~ s-mak ‎(“black, dark; ink”). Cognate with Tibetan སྨག ‎(smag, “dark, darkness”), མོག་པ ‎(mog pa, “dark-coloured”) and Chinese 墨 ‎(mò, “ink”).

The Myanmar-English Dictionary’s derivation from Pali masi ‎(“soot”) is phonologically implausible.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /m̥ìɴ/, [m̥ɪ̃̀] (as if spelled မှင်).