mu

See also: μ, Μ, and Appendix:Variations of "mu"

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English Wikipedia has an article on:

mu

Wikipedia

**Ancient Greek Alphabet**
← lambda		→ nu
Μ μ Ancient Greek: μῦ
Wikipedia article on mu

Etymology 1

From Ancient Greek μῦ (mû), derived from Phoenician 𐤌𐤌 (mm /⁠mem⁠/, “water”). Doublet of mem.

Pronunciation

(UK) IPA^(key): /muː/, /mjuː/
- Rhymes: -uː
- Homophone: moo (first pronunciation only)
- Homophone: mew (second pronunciation only)
(General American) IPA^(key): /mju/
- Audio (US): (file)
- Rhymes: -uː
- Homophone: mew

Noun

mu (countable and uncountable, plural mus)

The 12th letter of the Modern Greek alphabet.

Derived terms

mu-meson, muon
mu-metal

Translations

Greek letter

Arabic: مُو m (mū)
Asturian: mi (ast)
Catalan: mi (ca) f
Chinese:
Mandarin: 繆 / 缪 (zh) (miào), 姆 (zh) (mǔ), 米歐 / 米欧 (zh) (mǐ'ōu)
Czech: mí (cs)
Danish: my (da)
Dutch: mu (nl) m or f
Esperanto: muo (eo)
Faroese: my (fo) n, mu n
Finnish: myy (fi)
French: mu (fr) m
German: My (de) n
Greek: μι (el) n (mi)
Ancient: μῦ n (mû)
Hungarian: mű (hu)
Japanese: ミュー (ja) (myū), ミ (ja) (mi)
Korean: 뮤 (ko) (myu)
Malay: mu (ms)
Persian: مو (fa) (mu)
Polish: mi (pl) n, my (pl) n
Portuguese: mi (pt) m
Russian: мю (ru) n (mju), ми (ru) n (mi) (modern Greek only)
Swedish: my (sv)
Tagalog: mu
Thai: มิว (miu)

an instance of that letter

Finnish: myy (fi)

Etymology 2

From Japanese 無 (mu, “nothing, neither yes nor no”).

Pronunciation

(UK) IPA^(key): /muː/
- Homophone: moo
(US) IPA^(key): /mjuː/, /muː/
- Audio (US): (file)
- Homophone: mew (first pronunciation only)
- Homophone: moo (second pronunciation only)

Interjection

mu

(Zen Buddhism) Neither yes nor no.
- 1974, Robert M[aynard] Pirsig, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry into Values, New York, N.Y.: William Morrow & Company, →ISBN:
  Mu means "no thing." Like "Quality" it points outside the process of dualistic discrimination. Mu simply says, "No class; not one, not zero, not yes, not no." […] It's a great mistake, a kind of dishonesty, to sweep nature's mu answers under the carpet.
- 1979, Douglas Hofstadter, Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid:
  Achilles: Oh, but MU is Jōshū’s answer. By saying MU, Jōshū let the other monk know that only by not asking such questions can one know the answer to them.
  Tortoise: Jōshū “unasked” the question. […]
  Achilles: […] And the answer of “MU” here rejects the premises of the question, which are that one or the other must be chosen.
- 1996, Dan Simmons, “Looking for Kelly Dahl”, in The Year's Best Science Fiction, page 424:
  "Mu," said Kelly Dahl.
  On one level mu means only yes, but on a deeper level of Zen it was often used by the master when the acolyte asked a stupid, unanswerable or wrongheaded question such as "Does a dog have the Buddha-nature?" The Master would answer only, "Mu," meaning—I say "yes" but mean "no," but the actual answer is: Unask the question.
- 2002, Norman Waddell, Masao Abe, The Heart of Dōgen's Shōbōgenzō, page 72:
  The Fifth Patriarch's utterance You say mu [Buddha-nature] because Buddha-nature is emptiness articulates clearly and distinctly the truth that emptiness is not "no". In uttering Buddha-nature-emptiness one does not say "half a pound." One does not say "eight ounces." One says "mu."
- 2010, Joan Price, Sacred Scriptures of the World Religions, page 70:
  A monk once asked Master Joshu, 'Has a dog the Buddha Nature or not?' Joshu said, 'Mu!'

Noun

mu (uncountable)

(Zen Buddhism) Nothingness; nonexistence; the illusory nature of reality.
- 2012, Omori, Introduction To Zen Training, →ISBN, page 115:
  That being the case, we should naturally choose to contemplate mu from morning to night, forgetting everything.
- 2012, Dr Robert Wilkinson, Nishida and Western Philosophy, →ISBN:
  Consequently, though mu is mindlike, the likeness to individual consciousness cannot be pushed very far.
- 2013, Sean Murphy, Natalie Goldberg, One Bird, One Stone: 108 Contemporary Zen Stories, →ISBN, page xvii:
  The monk posed to Chaoi-chou a question: Does a dog have a buddha nature or not?" Chao-chou, without a moment's hesitation, answered, “Mu." (Translated as "No.")
- 2013, Maura O'Halloran, Pure Heart, Enlightened Mind, →ISBN:
  If mu is mind, consciousness, it is nothing.

Usage notes

Used to answer a question that if answered with "yes" or "no" would imply something false.

Synonyms

(nothingness): See also Thesaurus:inexistence

Etymology 3

From Mandarin 畝／亩 (mǔ).

Noun

mu (plural mu)

A unit of surface area, currently equivalent to two-thirtieths of a hectare.
- [1959 September, Tung Ta-lin [董大林], “The Inevitability of Quick Transition from Lower to Higher Stage of Agricultural Co-operation”, in Agricultural Co-operation in China [中国农业合作化的道路] (China Knowledge Series)‎, 2nd edition, Peking: Foreign Languages Press, →OCLC, page 72:
  The Lucky Star Co-operative in Chuwo County on the plains of southern Shansi had, before the anti-Japanese war, 26 wells, 4 water-wheels and 166.1 mou of irrigated fields, 4.82 per cent of its total arable land.]
- [1965 July 9 [1965 June 7], “Chienchiang County Reports Increase in Crops”, in Daily Report: Foreign Radio Broadcasts‎, number 131, Foreign Broadcast Information Service, sourced from Wuhan Domestic Service, →OCLC, page DDD 2‎:
  Good news on the summer harvest prevailed in the countryside of Chienchiang County, Hupeh. The county reported remarkable increased in its 600,000 mou of summer food crops this year, surpassing the yield in 1962 which was considered as the best year.]
- 2004, Peter Ho, “The Wasteland Auction Policy in Northwest China: Solving Environmental Degradation and Rural Poverty?”, in Rural Development in Transitional China: The New Agriculture‎, →ISBN, →ISSN, →LCCN, →OCLC, →OL, page 125‎:
  Pengyang county was administered by Guyuan before 1988. In contrast to Guyuan, Pengyang is relatively wealthy. Farmers earn a considerable income through tobacco cultivation, which can yield an annual gross income of Rmb 1,500-2,000 per mu. In 1996, the cultivated area of tobacco in Pengyang was 11,000 mu.⁷
- 2007, Chang Liu, Peasants and Revolution in Rural China: Rural Political Change in the North China Plain and the Yangzi Delta, 1850-1949, page 87:
  Of 114 village farming families, only ten had more than 30 mu of land and only five had more than 60 mu.

Anagrams

'um, -um, UM, um, um-

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Pronoun

mu

Dialectal form of mua

Noun

mu

(Mpakwithi) buttocks

References

Terry Crowley, The Mpakwithi dialect of Anguthimri (1981), page 187

Interjection

mu

moo (sound made by a cow or bull)

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): [ˈmu]
Audio: (file)

Pronoun

mu

singular dative of on
Řekni mu, že jím. ― Tell him, I am eating.
singular dative of ono

Synonyms

jemu

Etymology

From Ancient Greek μῦ (mû). Doublet of mem and majem.

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): /my/
Audio: (file)

Noun

mu m (plural mu's, diminutive muutje n)

mu (letter of the Greek alphabet)

Pronoun

mu

genitive singular of ma

Usage notes

Used unstressed in a sentence. When the pronoun is stressed, minu (genitive of mina) is used.

Adverb

mu

very

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): /my/
Audio: (file)

Noun

mu m (plural mu)

mu (Greek letter)

Participle

mu (feminine mue, masculine plural mus, feminine plural mues)

post-1990 spelling of mû

Noun

mu

(a) crocodile

Etymology

Cognates include Mangas mun, Polci mii, Miship mun.

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): /múː/
- (Standard Kano Hausa) IPA^(key): [múː]

Pronoun

mū

we (1st person plural pronoun)

Noun

mu (Mena), mụ (Ikobi)

water

References

Karl J. Franklin, Comparative Wordlist 1 of the Gulf District and adjacent areas (1975), page 67

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): /mu/

Pronoun

mu

(text messaging, informal) Alternative spelling of -mu.

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): /ˈmu/
Rhymes: -u
Hyphenation: mù

Noun

mu m or f (invariable)

the name of the letter M

Romanization

mu

The hiragana syllable む (mu) or the katakana syllable ム (mu) in Hepburn romanization.

Etymology

Borrowed from Burmese မူး (mu:).

Noun

mu

two anna bit

References

Kurabe, Keita (2016 December 31) “Phonology of Burmese loanwords in Jinghpaw”, in Kyoto University Linguistic Research‎, volume 35, →DOI, →ISSN, pages 91–128

Noun

mu

water

References

Gisaburō Norikura Kiyose, A Study of the Jurchen Language and Script: Reconstruction and Decipherment (1977)