Character: 莫
Modern (Beijing) reading: mò
Preclassic Old Chinese: māk
Classic Old Chinese: māk
Western Han Chinese: māk
Eastern Han Chinese: māk
Early Postclassic Chinese: māk
Middle Postclassic Chinese: māk
Late Postclassic Chinese: māk
Middle Chinese: mâk
English meaning : be luxuriant (usually reduplicated)
Russian meaning[s]: 1) запретительное отрицание не, нельзя; 2) не иметь, нет; 3) нет ничего, что было бы...; нет таких, кто был бы... (больше, лучше и т. д.); 4) пустыня, пустынные степи; 5) спокойствие; молчание; 6) сокр. Москва; 7) Мо (фамилия); [mù] 1) вечер, вм. 暮; 2) палатка, шатер, вм. 幕
Shuowen gloss: 日且冥也.從日在莽中.莽亦聲.
Comments: The proper original meaning is probably 'sombre, dark' (cf. the Shuowen gloss); the actual attestations in Early Zhou have the meaning 'luxuriant' (of bushes, plants) or 'tranquil' (of people). It is hard to distinguish this word etymologically from 黑 *smǝ̄k 'black' (ST *mǝ̄k) q.v.
The character is also used for *māks, MC mò (FQ JY 莫故), Mand. mù 'name of a plant'; *māk, MC mâk 'to plan, deliberate'; but its most frequent usage is for a word *māk, MC mâk, Mand. mò 'none, nothing; in no way' (in Shijing, not in Shujing where instead 亡 *maŋʔ is used) - which is morphologically a distributive derivate from 無 *ma 'there is no; of all, none'. The latter has preserved reflexes in Min (q.v.), which allows us to reconstruct non-aspirated *m- in 莫 *māk.
Radical: 140
Four-angle index: 4893
Karlgren code: 0802 a-c
Shijing occurrences: 2.2_, 19.1, 19.2, 19.3, 30.2, 32.4, 35.1, 40.1, 41.3, 51.1
