CS Knowledge Base

午 U+5348, 午 CJK UNIFIED IDEOGRAPH-5348 ← 升 [U+5347] CJK Unified Ideographs 卉 → [U+5349]

Stroke order

Stroke order

午 (Kangxi radical 24, 十+2, 4 strokes, Cangjie input 人十 (OJ) or 難人十 (XOJ), four-corner 8040₀, composition ⿱𠂉十 or ⿰丿干)

• 仵, 吘, 㞰, 忤, 汻, 迕, 旿, 㬳, 杵, 玝, 許, 许, 啎, 缶, 年, 㷏

• Kangxi Dictionary: page 156, character 4
• Dai Kanwa Jiten: character 2703
• Dae Jaweon: page 354, character 1
• Hanyu Da Zidian (first edition): volume 1, page 406, character 1
• Unihan data for U+5348

simp. and trad.		午
alternative forms		仐 𰅭 𨾟

Pictogram (象形) – a pestle (now written 杵). Unrelated to 干. See the central component of 舂 and 秦 in their original version.

Norman (1985) proposed connection with Austroasiatic; Ferlus (2013) noted a "[g]ood correspondence" between Proto-Vietic *m-ŋəːʔ (whence Vietnamese ngựa) and Old Chinese reconstructions like *m-qʰˁaʔ (Baxter-Sagart) and *ᵀs.ŋaʔ (Ferlus). Also compare Proto-Hlai *hŋaːʔ (“horse”), Proto-Kra *ŋja C (“horse”).

Alternatively, Smith (2011) proposed 午 (OC *ŋaːʔ)'s cognacy with 啎 (OC *ŋaːs) "to meet head on" and 御 (OC *ŋas) "to meet in (battle)" and suggested that "the moon at its full phase opposes the sun directly in the sky, meaning *ŋaaʔ 午 is probably to be glossed, given *-ʔ , ‘facing stage’". Schuessler (2007) regarded 午 (OC ŋâh) "to go against" as a mere graphic variant of 啎 and thus deemed the sense "to go against" distinct from the "earthly branch" sense.

午

1. the seventh of the twelve earthly branches
   1. (archaic, astrology) the seventh year of the Jovian orbital cycle
   2. (archaic) the fifth month of the Chinese calendar
   3. (historical) the double hour from 11 am to 1 pm

      午時／午时  ―  wǔshí  ―  11:00 to 13:00

      1. (precisely) noon

         午睡  ―  wǔshuì  ―  siesta (literally, “noon nap”)

      2. the middle of a period of time

         午夜  ―  wǔyè  ―  midnight

   4. (obsolete on its own in Standard Chinese) the south

      子午線／子午线  ―  zǐwǔxiàn  ―  line of longitude (literally, “north-south line”)

   5. (obsolete on its own in Standard Chinese) the horse (according to the Chinese zodiac)

      典午  ―  diǎnwǔ  ―  Grand Marshal (an important official post during the Han dynasty); major (a low-level officer who handled military affairs within a commandery); literally, “supervisor of horses”

2. (alt. form 迕) in a criss-cross manner; to cross each other
3. a surname
4. archaic form of 忤 (wǔ)

• (as an earthly branch): 地支 (dìzhī)
• (as precisely noon): 小時／小时 (xiǎoshí), 時候／时候 (shíhou)

For pronunciation and definitions of 午 – see 舞 (“to dance; dance; dancing; etc.”). (This character is the second-round simplified form of 舞).

Notes: Simplified Chinese is mainly used in Mainland China, Malaysia, and Singapore. Traditional Chinese is mainly used in Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan.

• 羅竹風 [Luo, Zhufeng], editor (1986–1994), “午”, in 漢語大詞典 [Hanyu Da Cidian] (in Chinese), 1st edition, Shanghai: Shanghai Lexicographical Publishing House, →ISBN
• “午”, in 漢語多功能字庫 (Multi-function Chinese Character Database)‎^[1], 香港中文大學 (the Chinese University of Hong Kong), 2014–
• Dictionary of Chinese Character Variants (教育部異體字字典), A00431
• 周存 [Zhōu, Cún], editor (2023), “午”, in 长汀话词典 CHANGTINGHUA CIDIAN [Dictionary of Changting Dialect] (overall work in Hakka and Mandarin), Guangzhou: 世界图书出版有限公司 [World Book Publishing Co., Ltd.], →ISBN, page 722.

(Second grade kyōiku kanji)

1. noon

• Go-on: ご (go, Jōyō)
• Kan-on: ご (go, Jōyō)
• Kun: うま (uma, 午)

Kanji in this term
午
うま Grade: 2
kun'yomi

From 馬(うま) (uma, “horse”).

• IPA^(key): [ɯ̟ma̠]
• (Tokyo) うま [ùmáꜜ] (Odaka – [2])

• Homophone: 馬

午(うま) • (Uma) 

1. the Horse, the seventh of the twelve Earthly Branches

   Hypernyms: 十二支, 地支

   Coordinate terms: 子, 丑, 寅, 卯, 辰, 巳, 午, 未, 申, 酉, 戌, 亥

Kanji in this term
午
ご Grade: 2
on'yomi

From Middle Chinese 午 (ngu^X).

• IPA^(key): [ɡo̞]
• (Tokyo) ご [góꜜ] (Atamadaka – [1])

午(ご) • (go) 

1. (rare) noon

• 午(ご)前(ぜん) (gozen, “a.m.”)
• 午(ご)後(ご) (gogo, “p.m.”)

午(ご) • (Go) 

1. the Horse, the seventh of the twelve Earthly Branches

   Hypernyms: 十二支, 地支

   Coordinate terms: 子, 丑, 寅, 卯, 辰, 巳, 午, 未, 申, 酉, 戌, 亥

• “^△午”, in 漢字ぺディア [Kanjipedia]‎^[2] (in Japanese), The Japan Kanji Aptitude Testing Foundation, 2015–2026

From Middle Chinese 午 (MC nguX).

Historical readings
Dongguk Jeongun reading
Dongguk Jeongun, 1448	ᅌᅩᆼ〯 (Yale: ngwǒ)

• (SK Standard/Seoul) IPA^(key): [o̞(ː)]
• Phonetic hangul: [오(ː)]
  • Though still prescribed in Standard Korean, most speakers in both Koreas no longer distinguish vowel length.

午 (eumhun 낮 오 (nat o))

1. hanja form^? of 오 (“noon; daytime”) [affix]

• 국제퇴계학회 대구경북지부 (國際退溪學會 大邱慶北支部) (2007). Digital Hanja Dictionary, 전자사전／電子字典. [3]

午: Hán Việt readings: ngọ^{[1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8]}, ngũ^[5][6][8]
午: Nôm readings: ngỏ^{[1][2][4][6][7][8]}, ngõ^{[1][2][3][4][8]}, ngủ^[1][2], ngó^[1], ngộ^[2], ngỡ^[2], ngọ^[3]

1. chữ Hán form of Ngọ (“seventh of the twelve earthly branches”)

   Hypernyms: 地支, 十二支

   Coordinate terms: 子, 丑, 寅, 卯, 辰, 巳, 午, 未, 申, 酉, 戌, 亥

2. chữ Nôm form of ngó (“to take a peek; to have a quick look”)
3. chữ Nôm form of ngỏ (“to open”)
4. chữ Nôm form of ngõ (“lane; alley; bystreet”)
5. chữ Nôm form of ngủ (“to sleep”)