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

Noun

烏有

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

Derived terms
  • 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 ʔuo ɦɨuX). 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): [ɯ̟ᵝjɯ̟ᵝː]

Noun

烏(う)有(ゆう) • (uyū) ←ういう (uiu)?

  1. [from 1375] nonexistence, nothing

Synonyms

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
  1. 1988, 国語大辞典（新装版） (Kokugo Dai Jiten, Revised Edition) (in Japanese), Tōkyō: Shogakukan
  2. 2006, 大辞林 (Daijirin), Third Edition (in Japanese), Tōkyō: Sanseidō, →ISBN
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