Zi:么

么 [me] (F​麼) (suffix:) ​什么; ​怎么 [má] [yāo] (S​幺) small [mó] [ma]

3 monosyllabic entries in The ABC Chinese-English Comprehensive Dictionary (namespace Ci):

►me To view this entry, please log in
►¹má To view this entry, please log in
►⁶yāo To view this entry, please log in

么 originated as another way of writing ​幺 (yāo) ‘small’, depicting two tiny silk cocoons. Another word meaning ‘small’ is ​麽 or ​麼 mó, written with 么 or ​幺 plus ​麻 má phonetic on top.
    The second syllable of the modern words shénme ‘what’, zěnme ‘how’, nàme ‘so’, etc., also came to be written with the character ​麽 or ​麼.
    Now among simple form characters, 么 is used instead of ​麽 in ​那么 nàme etc., but ​麽 is used in the word ​幺​麽 yāomó ‘insignificant’.
    On the other hand, among full form characters, ​麼 is used for writing ​那​麼 nàme etc., and 么 is used to write yāo in 么​麼 yāomó ‘insignificant’.
►references: Wieger:90a; Karlgren:AD593; Hànyǔ Dà Zìdiǎn:1.33.2; Mathews:7282; Kāngxī Zìdiǎn:82.03; Bǐshùn Guīfàn:003.1.02
►components: ​丿​厶​
►Cantonese: mo\
►stroke 么 (... strokes)   
►list characters containing 么 as a component
►list words containing 么 (most common words first)
Unicode: U+4E48
►web links for ‘么’
search web for ‘么’: ►Google ►GT ►Baidu ►Bing ►Yahoo

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