مو

See also: Appendix:Variations of "mu"

Arabic

مُو

Etymology

Borrowed from Ancient Greek μῆον (mêon).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /muː/

Noun

مُو • (mū) m

1. meu, baldmoney (Meum athamanticum)

   Synonym: شِبِتّ بَرِّيّ (šibitt barriyy)

Usage notes

Presumably obsolete, as the range of the plant ends southwards to the East in Bulgaria and to the West in Al-Andalus, apocryphically Morocco, and as a learned borrowing only used in medieval pharmacology, found in authors like the Cordoban Maimonides. It is usually, even by the pharmacognosists, called inexactly شِبِتّ (šibitt, “dill”).

Declension

Declension of noun مُو (mū)

Singular	singular invariable
	Indefinite	Definite	Construct
Informal	مُو mū	الْمُو al-mū	مُو mū
Nominative	مُو mū	الْمُو al-mū	مُو mū
Accusative	مُو mū	الْمُو al-mū	مُو mū
Genitive	مُو mū	الْمُو al-mū	مُو mū

References

• Dozy, Reinhart Pieter Anne (1881) “مو”, in Supplément aux dictionnaires arabes‎^[1] (in French), volume 2, Leiden: E. J. Brill, page 622b
• Freytag, Georg (1837) “مو”, in Lexicon arabico-latinum praesertim ex Djeuharii Firuzabadiique et aliorum Arabum operibus adhibitis Golii quoque et aliorum libris confectum‎^[2] (in Latin), volume 4, Halle: C. A. Schwetschke, page 222a
• Löw, Immanuel (1916) “Bemerkungen zu Budge’s „The Syriac Book of Medicines“”, in Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgenländischen Gesellschaft‎^[3] (in German), volume 70, pages 528 line 15 – page 529 line 3

Chagatai

Particle

مو (mū)

1. used to form interrogatives

Hijazi Arabic

Etymology

From underlying Arabic مَا هُوَ (mā huwa). Compare North Levantine Arabic مو (mū) and Iraqi Arabic مو (mū).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /muː/

Particle

مو • (mū)

1. not

   مو غَرِيب عَلَيَّ. ― mū ḡarīb ʕalayya. ― It's not strange to me.

Iraqi Arabic

Etymology 1

From underlying Arabic مَا هُوَ (mā huwa).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /mu/

Particle

مو (mū)

1. not

   مو مشكلة

   mu muškila

   No problem

Etymology 2

From Turkic interrogative particle, compare Turkish mu.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /mu/

Particle

مو (mū)

1. used to form interrogatives

   چانوا بالسوق مو ؟

   čānaw bis-sūg mū?

   They were at the market, were they not?

Mozarabic

Alternative forms

• מו (mw) — Hebrew script

Etymology

From Latin meus (“my”).

Determiner

مو (mū) (masculine, feminine ما)

1. my
   • c. 1100, al-Aʕmā al-Tuṭīlī, Kharja A8 :

     مو الحبيب أنڢرم ذي مو امار

     mū al-ḥabīb anfərmə ḏī mū amār

     My beloved is ill with my love.

Notes

• Corriente transcribes it as ⟨mw⟩, which he takes to represent a Mozarabic mew.

North Levantine Arabic

Etymology

Contraction of ما هو (ma hū, “it is not”), going back to Arabic مَا هُوَ (mā huwa, “it is not”) with the pronoun's final vowel clipped.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /mu(ː)/

Particle

مو • (mū)

1. not (negates a noun)

   مو مشكلة

   mū miškle

   Not a problem

Usage notes

• Overwhelmingly associated with Syrian varieties. Lebanese usage tends toward مش (miš, muš) or toward displacing both options with ما (mā).

Ottoman Turkish

Etymology

From Persian مو (mu).

Noun

مو • (mu)

1. hair

Further reading

• Kélékian, Diran (1911) “مو”, in Dictionnaire turc-français‎^[4], Constantinople: Mihran, page 1239b
• Redhouse, James W. (1890) “مو”, in A Turkish and English Lexicon‎^[5], Constantinople: A. H. Boyajian, page 2017b

Pashto

Pronoun

مو • (mō)

1. our (affixed form)
2. your (affixed form, possessive of تاسو)

Persian

Etymology 1

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /mo/

Pronoun

مو • (mo)

1. (dialectal, Mashhad, Bushehr, Khesht, Konartakhteh, Dashtestan) Alternative form of من (man)

Etymology 2

From Middle Persian [script needed] (mwd /⁠mōy⁠/, “hair”), from Proto-Iranian *mauda- (“hair”), of uncertain origin. Probably from a compound of Proto-Iranian *maw- / *mū- (“bind”) (related to Sanskrit मवते (mavate, “bind, tie, fix”), see there for more) either Proto-Iranian *dō- (“give”) (from Proto-Indo-European *deh₃- (“to give”)) or Proto-Iranian *dʰē- (“to place, put”) (from Proto-Indo-European *dʰeh₁- (“to do, put”)).

Alternative forms

• موی (muy)
• مین (min) (dialectal)

Pronunciation

• (Classical Persian) IPA^(key): [moː]

 

• (Dari, formal) IPA^(key): [moː], [muː]

• (Dari, formal) IPA^(key): [moː], [muː]
  • (Kabuli) IPA^(key): [moː], [muː]
  • (Hazaragi) IPA^(key): [mʊː], [mu]

• (Iran, formal) IPA^(key): [muː]

• (Tajik, formal) IPA^(key): [mɵ]

Readings
Classical reading?	mō
Dari reading?	mō, mū
Iranian reading?	mu
Tajik reading?	mü

Noun

Dari	مو
Iranian Persian
Tajik	мӯ

مو • (mu) (plural موها (mu-hâ))

1. hair
   • 10th/11th century, attributed to Abū-Sa'īd Abul-Khayr and Avicenna, [6]:

     دل گرچه در این بادیه بسیار شتافت
     یک موی ندانست ولی موی شکافت
     اندر دل من هزار خورشید بتافت
     آخر به کمال ذره‌ای راه نیافت

     dil garči dar în bâdiya bisyâr šitâft
     yak môy nadânist valî môy šikâft
     andar dil-i man hazâr xuršêd bitâft
     âxar ba kamâl zarra-ê râh nayâft

     Although [this] heart hastened in this desert so much,
     A hair was not aware, but passed through hairs.
     A thousand of suns shined inside my heart
     At the end, it did not reach the smallest bit of excellence.

   Synonym: گیسو (gêsu)

References

• MacKenzie, D. N. (1971) “mōy”, in A concise Pahlavi dictionary, London, New York, Toronto: Oxford University Press, page 56

Etymology 3

From Proto-Iranian *mádu (“honey, wine”), as wine grapes are famously grown on vines. Compare میوه (mêve, “fruit”), مویز (maviz, meviz, “raisins”). Akin to Judeo-Isfahani [script needed] (mew, “vine”).

Noun

مو • (mow) (plural موها (mow-hâ))

1. vine

   Synonyms: میو (mīv), میوانه (mīvāne), رز (raz), تاک (tāk)

Derived terms

• موستان (movestân)

Descendants

• → Armenian: մով (mov)
• → Azerbaijani: möv, mev, möy