Translingual

Stroke order

Han character

馬 (radical 187 馬+0, 10 strokes, cangjie input 尸手尸火 (SQSF), four-corner 7132₇)

1. Kangxi radical #187, ⾺ ‎(“horse”).

Derived terms

• 媽, 嗎, 闖, 罵, 螞, 碼, 瑪, 榪, 獁, 傌, 溤, 遤, 鎷, 禡, 䣕, 㾺, 褭
• Index:Chinese radical/馬

References

• KangXi: page 1433, character 1
• Dai Kanwa Jiten: character 44572
• Dae Jaweon: page 1956, character 34
• Hanyu Da Zidian: volume 7, page 4539, character 1
• Unihan data for U+99AC

Chinese

Glyph origin

Historical forms of the character 馬
Oracle bone script	Bronze inscriptions	Bamboo and silk script	Large seal script	Small seal script

Clerical script	Semi-cursive script	Cursive script

Pictogram (象形) ; derived from the pictogram of a horse with its head turned to look back and showing a flowing mane in the wind. The four short strokes at its base (灬) represent its feet, and the sweeping hook stroke in the lower right represents its tail.

Compare also 鳥 (“bird”), whose current form is similar (graphically, 灬 for claws/legs).

Contrast with 鹿 (“deer”), which saw a very different development, and 𢊁 (“bison”) (as in 薦), which is a hybrid: it has the the legs of 馬 (灬) but the head of 鹿.

Etymology

“Horse” – from Proto-Sino-Tibetan *k-m-raŋ ~ s-raŋ. The sense of “big” is derived from “horse”; compare the English uses of horse.

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

Pronunciation

Definitions

馬

1. horse   (Classifier: 匹; 隻／只)
2. horse-shaped
3. (chess) knight
4. (Chinese chess) horse
5. Original form of 碼／码 (mǎ, “chip for counting”).
6. big (prefix for nouns)

   馬勺 / 马勺  ―  mǎsháo  ―  ladle (big spoon)

7. Prefix for names of insects, also written as 螞.
8. Short for 馬祖／马祖 (Mǎzǔ).
9. Short for 馬來西亞／马来西亚 (Mǎláixīyà).
10. A surname​.

Compounds

Japanese

Kanji

Japanese stroke order

(grade 2 “Kyōiku” kanji)

1. horse

Readings

• Goon: め (me)
• Kan’on: ば (ba)
• Kan’yōon: ま (ma)
• Kun: うま (uma)

Compounds

Etymology 1

馬 (uma, muma): a pair of horses.

From Old Japanese.^[1] Recorded in the Nihon Shoki as having been brought over from the Korean peninsula kingdom of Baekje, with the earlier reading of ma. The initial m sound was apparently emphasized,^[1][2] possibly similar to *mma, becoming then uma or muma, via processes also seen in the word 梅 ‎(ume, mume, “plum”).

The ma sound denoting "horse" is common to a number of languages of central Asia, where horses were first domesticated, suggesting a possible cognate root. Compare Manchu ᠮᠣᡵᡳᠨ ‎(morin, “horse”), Mongol морь ‎(morj, “horse”), Korean 말 ‎(mal, “horse”), Mandarin 馬 ‎(mă, “horse”), and Proto-Indo-European *márkos ‎(“horse”) and descendants such as Irish marc ‎(“horse”, archaic) or English mare ‎(“female horse”). More at *márkos.

Pronunciation

• Kun'yomi
• (Tokyo) うま​ [ùmáꜜ] (Odaka - [2])^[2][3]
• IPA^(key): [ɯᵝma̠]

Noun

馬 ‎(counter 匹, hiragana うま, romaji uma)

1. a horse
2. (shogi) 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.

Pronunciation

• Kun'yomi
• IPA^(key): [mɯᵝma̠]

Noun

馬 ‎(hiragana むま, romaji muma)

1. (obsolete) a horse
   • c. 759, Man'yōshū (book 20, poem 4372)

     阿志加良能 美佐可多麻波理 可閇理美須 阿例波久江由久 阿良志乎母 多志夜波婆可流 不破乃世伎 久江弖和波由久 牟麻能都米 都久志能佐伎尓 知麻利為弖 阿例波伊波々牟 母呂々々波 佐祁久等麻乎須 可閇利久麻弖尓

   • c. 935 Tosa Nikki

     ふぢはらのときざね、ふなぢなれど、むまのはなむけす。

   • c. 935 Tosa Nikki

     けふはあをむまをおもへど、かひなし。

References

1. 1 2 1988, 国語大辞典（新装版） (Kokugo Dai Jiten, Revised Edition) (in Japanese), Tōkyō: Shogakukan
2. 1 2 2006, 大辞林 (Daijirin), Third Edition (in Japanese), Tōkyō: Sanseidō, ISBN 4-385-13905-9
3. ↑ 1998, NHK日本語発音アクセント辞典 (NHK Japanese Pronunciation Accent Dictionary) (in Japanese), Tōkyō: NHK, ISBN 978-4-14-011112-3

Korean

Hanja

馬 • ‎(ma)
Eumhun:

• Sound (hangeul): 마 (McCune-Reischauer: ma, Yale: ma)

• Name (hangeul): 말, 성 (revised: mal, seong, McCune-Reischauer: mal, sŏng, Yale: mal, seng)

1. This term needs a translation to English. Please help out and add a translation, then remove the text {{rfdef}}.

Compounds

• 馬車 (마차, macha): horse-drawn carriage
• 競馬 (경마, gyeongma): horserace

See also

• 말 (mal)

Vietnamese

Character

Readings

• Hán Việt: mã
• Nôm: ngựa, mứa, mã, mựa, mả, mở, nhật, nguyên, nhân

Compounds

• 兵馬 ‎(binh mã)

Etymology 1

Noun

馬 ‎(ngựa)

1. horse

Etymology 2

Noun

馬 ‎(mứa)

1. excess

Etymology 3

Noun

馬 ‎(mựa)

1. (dialectal) don't

Etymology 4

Noun

馬 ‎(mả)

1. tomb, grave
   • 1916: Nguyễn Đình Chiểu, Lục Vân Tiên, lines 921–922

     小(tiểu)童(đồng)庄(chẳng)及(kịp)哙(hỏi)㗍(han)/𦣰(nằm)陵(lăn)边(bên)馬(mả)哭(khóc)嘆(than)徘(bồi)徊(hồi)

     Before the page has a chance to pay a visit, / He throws himself down upon the grave, crying, lamenting, fretting.

Etymology 5

Verb

馬 ‎(mở)

1. to open

References

• Jean-Louis Taberd (1838), Dictionarium Anamitico-Latinum, p. 709.
• Lê Sơn Thanh, "Nom-Viet.dat", WinVNKey (details)