烏有

See also: 乌有

Chinese

		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)		烏	有
simp. (乌有)		乌	有

Etymology

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

Pronunciation

Mandarin
(Pinyin): wūyǒu

(Zhuyin): ㄨㄧㄡˇ
Cantonese (Jyutping): wu¹ jau⁵
Southern Min
(Hokkien, POJ): o͘-iú

(Teochew, Peng'im): u¹ iu²

Mandarin
- (Standard Chinese)⁺
  - Hanyu Pinyin: wūyǒu
  - Zhuyin: ㄨㄧㄡˇ
  - Tongyong Pinyin: wuyǒu
  - Wade–Giles: wu¹-yu³
  - Yale: wū-yǒu
  - Gwoyeu Romatzyh: uyeou
  - Palladius: ую (uju)
  - Sinological IPA ^(key): /u⁵⁵ joʊ̯²¹⁴⁻²¹⁽⁴⁾/
Cantonese
- (Standard Cantonese, Guangzhou–Hong Kong)⁺
  - Jyutping: wu¹ jau⁵
  - Yale: wū yáuh
  - Cantonese Pinyin: wu¹ jau⁵
  - Guangdong Romanization: wu¹ yeo⁵
  - Sinological IPA ^(key): /wuː⁵⁵ jɐu̯¹³/
Southern Min
- (Hokkien)
  - Pe̍h-ōe-jī: o͘-iú
  - Tâi-lô: oo-iú
  - Phofsit Daibuun: o'iuo
  - IPA (Xiamen): /ɔ⁴⁴⁻²² iu⁵³/
  - IPA (Quanzhou): /ɔ³³ iu⁵⁵⁴/
  - IPA (Zhangzhou): /ɔ⁴⁴⁻²² iu⁵³/
  - IPA (Taipei): /ɔ⁴⁴⁻³³ iu⁵³/
  - IPA (Kaohsiung): /ɔ⁴⁴⁻³³ iu⁴¹/
- (Teochew)
  - Peng'im: u¹ iu²
  - Pe̍h-ōe-jī-like: u iú
  - Sinological IPA ^(key): /u³³⁻²³ iu⁵²/

Noun

烏有

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

Derived terms

付之烏有 / 付之乌有
化為烏有 / 化为乌有 (huàwéiwūyǒu)
子虛烏有 / 子虚乌有 (zǐxū-wūyǒu)
烏有先生 / 乌有先生
烏有鄉 / 乌有乡 (“utopia”)

Japanese

Kanji in this term
烏	有
う Jinmeiyō	ゆう Grade: 3
goon	kan'on

Etymology

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 烏 / 乌 (“crow”) + 有 (“have”), the 烏 / 乌 character was also used phonetically in Chinese with a separate sense of none or not.

Pronunciation

(Tokyo) うゆう [ùyúú] (Heiban – [0])^[2]
IPA^(key): [ɯ̟jɯ̟ː]

Noun

烏(う)有(ゆう) • (uyū) ^{←ういう (uiu)^?}

[from 1375] nonexistence, nothing

Synonyms

皆(かい)無(む) (kaimu)

Idioms

烏(う)有(ゆう)に帰(き)す (uyū ni kisu): to return something to nothingness
烏(う)有(ゆう)に属(ぞく)す (uyū ni zokusu): to consign something to nothingness

References

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

[KDJ-1] Shōgaku Tosho (1988) 国語大辞典（新装版） [Unabridged Dictionary of Japanese (Revised Edition)] (in Japanese), Tōkyō: Shogakukan, →ISBN

[DJR-2] Matsumura, Akira, editor (2006), 大辞林 [Daijirin] (in Japanese), Third edition, Tokyo: Sanseidō, →ISBN

[1]

[2]