烏有

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See also: 乌有

Chinese

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a crow; black; not
a crow; black; not; empty; void
 
to have; there is; there are
to have; there is; there are; to exist; to be
trad. (烏有)
simp. (乌有)

Etymology

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Literally “not-have”; a fictional character in 子虛賦.

Pronunciation

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Noun

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烏有

  1. (literary, figurative) nonexistent person or thing; naught; nothing

Derived terms

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Japanese

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Kanji in this term

Jinmeiyō
ゆう
Grade: 3
goon kan’on

Etymology

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Ultimately from Middle Chinese 烏有 (MC 'u hjuwX). May be a learned borrowing from Chinese 烏有乌有 (wūyǒu), considering that this is first cited in Japanese to a text from 1375.[1]

Although this compound may appear to literally parse out to (crow) + (have), the character was also used phonetically in Chinese with a separate sense of none or not.

Pronunciation

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Noun

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()(ゆう) (uyūういう (uiu)?

  1. [from 1375] nonexistence, nothing

Synonyms

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Idioms

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References

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  1. ^ Shōgaku Tosho (1988) 国語大辞典(新装版) [Unabridged Dictionary of Japanese (Revised Edition)] (in Japanese), Tōkyō: Shogakukan, →ISBN
  2. ^ Matsumura, Akira, editor (2006), 大辞林 [Daijirin] (in Japanese), Third edition, Tokyo: Sanseidō, →ISBN