蜉

蜉	U+8709, 蜉 CJK UNIFIED IDEOGRAPH-8709

← 蜈
[U+8708]

CJK Unified Ideographs

蜊 →
[U+870A]

Translingual

Han character

蜉 (Kangxi radical 142, 虫+7, 13 strokes, cangjie input 中戈月弓木 (LIBND), four-corner 5214₇, composition ⿰虫孚)

References

Kangxi Dictionary: page 1084, character 22
Dai Kanwa Jiten: character 33104
Dae Jaweon: page 1552, character 7
Hanyu Da Zidian (first edition): volume 4, page 2857, character 3
Unihan data for U+8709

Chinese

simp. and trad.		蜉
alternative forms		𧖚𧕰

Glyph origin

Characters in the same phonetic series (孚) (Zhengzhang, 2003)

	Old Chinese
殍	brɯwʔ, browʔ, *pʰuw
脬	*pʰruː
捊	bruː, buw
莩	browʔ, pʰuw
哹	pu, bu
浮	*bu
蜉	*bu
桴	bu, pʰuw
罦	bu, pʰuw
琈	*bu
粰	*bu
烰	*bu
艀	*bu
俘	*pʰuw
孚	*pʰuw
孵	*pʰuw
稃	*pʰuw
郛	*pʰuw
筟	*pʰuw

Etymology

From Proto-Sino-Tibetan *bəw (“insect, bug, vermin, snake”); cognate with Burmese ပိုး (pui:, “insect”), Tibetan འབུ ('bu, “iworm, bug”), Apatani ta-bu (“snake”), bu-rũ & bu-di (“python”), Southern Qiang bù ló (bug, maggot), etc. (STEDT). Schuessler (2007) also proposes cognacy with Tibetan སྦུར (sbur, “ant”), yet STEDT doesn't.

Pronunciation

Mandarin
(Pinyin): fú (fu²)

(Zhuyin): ㄈㄨˊ
Cantonese (Jyutping): fau⁴
Eastern Min (BUC): pèu
Puxian Min (Pouseng Ping'ing): hieo²
Southern Min
(Hokkien, POJ): hû

(Teochew, Peng'im): pu⁵

Mandarin
- (Standard Chinese)⁺
  - Hanyu Pinyin: fú
  - Zhuyin: ㄈㄨˊ
  - Tongyong Pinyin: fú
  - Wade–Giles: fu²
  - Yale: fú
  - Gwoyeu Romatzyh: fwu
  - Palladius: фу (fu)
  - Sinological IPA ^(key): /fu³⁵/
Cantonese
- (Standard Cantonese, Guangzhou–Hong Kong)
  - Jyutping: fau⁴
  - Yale: fàuh
  - Cantonese Pinyin: fau⁴
  - Guangdong Romanization: feo⁴
  - Sinological IPA ^(key): /fɐu̯²¹/
Eastern Min
- (Fuzhou)
  - Bàng-uâ-cê: pèu
  - Sinological IPA ^(key): /pʰɛu⁵³/
Puxian Min
- (Putian)
  - Pouseng Ping'ing: hieo²
  - Sinological IPA ^(key): /hieu¹³/
- (Xianyou)
  - Pouseng Ping'ing: hieo²
  - Sinological IPA ^(key): /hieu²⁴/
Southern Min
- (Hokkien: Quanzhou, Xiamen, Zhangzhou)
  - Pe̍h-ōe-jī: hû
  - Tâi-lô: hû
  - Phofsit Daibuun: huu
  - IPA (Quanzhou, Xiamen): /hu²⁴/
  - IPA (Zhangzhou): /hu¹³/
- (Teochew)
  - Peng'im: pu⁵
  - Pe̍h-ōe-jī-like: phû
  - Sinological IPA ^(key): /pʰu⁵⁵/

Middle Chinese: bjuw

Rime
Character	蜉
Reading #	1/1
Initial (聲)	並 (3)
Final (韻)	尤 (136)
Tone (調)	Level (Ø)
Openness (開合)	Open
Division (等)	III
Fanqie	縛謀切
Baxter	bjuw
Reconstructions
Zhengzhang Shangfang	/bɨu/
Pan Wuyun	/biu/
Shao Rongfen	/biəu/
Edwin Pulleyblank	/buw/
Li Rong	/biu/
Wang Li	/bĭəu/
Bernhard Karlgren	/bʱi̯ə̯u/
Expected Mandarin Reflex	fóu
Expected Cantonese Reflex	fau⁴

Old Chinese
(Baxter–Sagart): /*[b](r)u/

(Zhengzhang): /*bu/

Baxter–Sagart system 1.1 (2014)
Character	蜉
Reading #	1/1
Modern Beijing (Pinyin)	fú
Middle Chinese	‹ bjuw ›
Old Chinese	/*[b](r)u/
English	mayfly
Notes for Old Chinese notations in the Baxter–Sagart system: * Parentheses "()" indicate uncertain presence; * Square brackets "[]" indicate uncertain identity, e.g. [t] as coda may in fact be -t or -p; Angle brackets "<>" indicate infix; * Hyphen "-" indicates morpheme boundary; * Period "." indicates syllable boundary.

Zhengzhang system (2003)
Character	蜉
Reading #	1/1
No.	3347
Phonetic component	孚
Rime group	幽
Rime subdivision	1
Corresponding MC rime	浮
Old Chinese	/*bu/

Definitions

蜉

only used in 蜉蝣 (fúyóu) and 蚍蜉 (pífú)
(historical dictionaries only) big ant

Compounds

撼樹蚍蜉 / 撼树蚍蜉
蚍蜉 (pífú)
蚍蜉撼大樹 / 蚍蜉撼大树 (pífúhàndàshù)
蚍蜉撼樹 / 蚍蜉撼树 (pífúhànshù)
蚍蜉酒草
蜉蝣 (fúyóu)
蜉蝣在世 (fúyóu zàishì)
螞蚍蜉 / 蚂蚍蜉

References

“蜉”, 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–
莆田市荔城区档案馆 [Putian City Licheng District Archives], editor (2022), “蜉”, in 莆仙方言文读字汇 [Puxian Dialect Literary Reading Dictionary] (overall work in Mandarin and Puxian Min), page 69.

Japanese

Kanji

蜉

(Hyōgai kanji)

mayfly
large ant

Readings

Go-on: ぶ (bu)
Kan-on: ふう (fū)
Kan’yō-on: ふ (fu)

Compounds

蜉蝣(かげろう) (kagerō), 蜉蝣(ふゆう) (fuyū): mayfly
蚍蜉(ひふ) (hifu): large ant

Korean

Hanja

蜉 • (bu) (hangeul 부, revised bu, McCune–Reischauer pu, Yale pu)

mayfly
kind of large insect

Vietnamese

Han character

蜉: Hán Việt readings: phù

This term needs a translation to English. Please help out and add a translation, then remove the text {{rfdef}}.

Compounds

蜉蝣 (phù du)