桃

桃 (Kangxi radical 75, 木+6, 10 strokes, cangjie input 木中一人 (DLMO), four-corner 4291₃, composition ⿰木兆)

• 𥰜

• Kangxi Dictionary: page 525, character 4
• Dai Kanwa Jiten: character 14757
• Dae Jaweon: page 913, character 8
• Hanyu Da Zidian (first edition): volume 2, page 1202, character 7
• Unihan data for U+6843

Phono-semantic compound (形聲 / 形声, OC *l'aːw): semantic 木 (“tree”) + phonetic 兆 (OC *l'ewʔ).

Possibly borrowed from the linguistic ancestor of Proto-Hmong-Mien *glaau³ᴬ (Bodman 1980, Schuessler, 2007). The oldest-known domesticated peach stones (as of 2014) have been excavated in Zhejiang,^[1] east of the Central Plain cradle of Chinese civilization.

桃

1. peach tree (Prunus persica)

   桃花  ―  táohuā  ―  peach flower

   桃樹／桃树  ―  táo shù  ―  peach tree

   • 桃之夭夭、灼灼其華。
     之子于歸、宜其室家。 [Classical Chinese, trad.]
     桃之夭夭、灼灼其华。
     之子于归、宜其室家。 [Classical Chinese, simp.]

     From: The Classic of Poetry, c. 11^th – 7^th centuries BCE, translated based on James Legge's version

     Táo zhī yāoyāo, zhuózhuó qí huá.
     Zhī zǐ yúguī, yí qí shìjiā. [Pinyin]

     Young and tender is the peach tree; bright and radiant shall its blossoms be.
     Going to her future home is this young lady; may her house and chamber well-ordered be!

2. peach (fruit)
3. peach-shaped object
4. birthday

   壽桃包／寿桃包  ―  shòutáobāo  ―  longevity peach bun

5. (Xiamen and Zhangzhou Hokkien) immature poultry or livestock
6. walnut
7. a surname, Tao

• (peach):

• (walnut):

• → Thai: ท้อ (tɔ́ɔ)

• “桃”, in 漢語多功能字庫 (Multi-function Chinese Character Database)‎^[3], 香港中文大學 (the Chinese University of Hong Kong), 2014–
• 李如龙 [Li, Ru-long], 刘福铸 [Liu, Fu-zhu], 吴华英 [Wu, Hua-ying], 黄国城 [Huang, Guo-cheng] (2019) “桃”, in 莆仙方言调查报告 [Investigation Report on Puxian Dialect] (overall work in Mandarin and Puxian Min), Xiamen University Press, →ISBN, page 173.

(Jōyō kanji)

1. peach

• Go-on: どう (dō)^{←だう (dau, historical)}
• Kan-on: とう (tō, Jōyō)^{←たう (tau, historical)}
• Kun: もも (momo, 桃, Jōyō)

From Old Japanese, from Proto-Japonic *momo. Mentioned in the Nihon Shoki of 720.^[1]

Brought to Japan in antiquity, with pits found in prehistoric sites from the Yayoi period, 300 BCE - 300 CE. Mentioned as a food in documents from the Nara and Heian periods.^[1]

Ultimate derivation unknown. Theories include the following.

• Possibly derived originally from a reduplication of 実 (Old Japanese mu, modern Japanese mi, “fruit”), from the way that peaches often grow in clusters. However, the vowel shift seems unlikely given regular Japanese phonetic shifts. In addition, most reduplicated terms in Japanese have the 頭高型 (atamadaka-gata) pitch accent pattern, starting high and falling, which differs from the 平板型 (heiban-gata) pitch accent pattern of this term.
• Possibly cognate with Old Japanese 百 (momo, “hundred; lots”). However, this also has the 頭高型 (atamadaka-gata) pitch accent pattern.
• Possibly a reduplication of 毛 (mo, “hair”), from the way that peaches are hairy. The term is spelled as 毛毛 in some ancient documents. However, 毛 was commonly used as man'yōgana for its phonetic value, in which cases its original Chinese meaning of hair is usually ignored.

None of the above possibilities seems very compelling. Given the archaeological evidence, this term probably predated Old Japanese and originated from among the Yayoi people, descendants of the local Jōmon people in the Japanese archipelago and Proto-Japonic-speaking migrants from the Korean peninsula.^[2]

Possibly related to 梅 (ancient mume, modern ume, “Japanese apricot, Japanese plum”).

• (Tokyo) もも [mòmó] (Heiban – [0])^[4][5][3]
• IPA^(key): [mo̞mo̞]

• (Kyoto) もも [mómó] (Kōki – [0])^[3]

桃(もも) or 桃(モモ) • (momo) 

1. [from 720] peach
2. [from 720] peach tree

As with many terms that name organisms, this term is often spelled in katakana, especially in biological contexts (where katakana is customary), as モモ (momo).

• >? Ainu: モマ (moma, “Japanese peach, Japanese apricot”)

桃(もも) • (Momo) 

1. a female given name

桃 (eumhun 복숭아 나무 도 (boksung'a namu do))

1. hanja form^? of 도 (“peach”)
2. hanja form^? of 도 (“marriage”)

(Jōyō kanji)

• Kun: むむ (mumu, 桃)

From Proto-Ryukyuan *momo, from Proto-Japonic *momo. Cognate with Japanese 桃 (momo).

桃(むむ) (mumu) 

1. peach

桃: Hán Nôm readings: đào

1. peach