مو
Arabic

Etymology
Borrowed from Ancient Greek μῆον (mêon).
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /muː/
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
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 (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 (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 (in German), volume 70, page 528 line 15 – page 529 line 3
Chagatai
Iraqi Arabic
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /mu/
Etymology 2
From Turkic interrogative particle, compare Turkish mu.
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /mu/
Particle
مو (mū)
- used to form interrogatives
- چانوا بالسوق مو ؟
- chānū bis-sūg mū?
- They were at the market, were they not?
Mozarabic
Alternative forms
- מו (mw) (Hebrew script)
Determiner
مو (mū) (masculine, feminine ما)
- my
- c. 1100, al-Aʿmā al-Tuṭīlī, Kharja A8 :[1]
- مو الحبيب أنفرم ذ مو امار
- mū al-ḥabīb anfərmə ḏī mū amār
- My beloved is ill with my love.
- مو الحبيب أنفرم ذ مو امار
Notes
- Corriente transcribes it as ⟨mw⟩, which he takes to represent a Mozarabic mew.[2]
References
- Jones, Alan (1988) Romance Kharjas in Andalusian Arabic Muwaššaḥ Poetry (Oxford Oriental Institute Monographs; 9), Ithaca Press London, →ISBN, pages 77-79
- Corriente, F. (1993), “Nueva propuesta de lectura de las xarajāt de la serie arabe con texto romance”, in Revista de Filología Española (in Spanish), volume LXXIII, issue 1/2, page 31
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)/
Ottoman Turkish
Further reading
- Kélékian, Diran (1911), “مو”, in Dictionnaire turc-français, Constantinople: Mihran, page 1239b
- Redhouse, James W. (1890), “مو”, in A Turkish and English Lexicon, Constantinople: A. H. Boyajian, page 2017b
Persian
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /mo/
Pronoun
مو • (mo)
- (dialectal, Mashhad, Bushehr, Khesht, Konartakhteh, Dashtestan) Alternative form of من (man)
Etymology 2
From Middle Persian [script needed] (mwd /mōy/, “hair”).
Alternative forms
- موی (muy)
Pronunciation
- (Classical Persian) IPA(key): /muː(j)/
- (Dari Persian) IPA(key): /muː(j)/
- (Iranian Persian) IPA(key): /muː(j)/
- (Tajik) IPA(key): /mu(j)/
Noun
Dari | مو |
---|---|
Iranian Persian | |
Tajik | мӯ (mü) |
مو • (mu) (plural موها (mu-hâ))
- hair
- 10th/11th century, attributed to Abū-Sa'īd Abul-Khayr and Avicenna, :
- 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.
- dil garči dar în bâdiya bisyâr šitâft
- Synonym: گیسو (gêsu)
- 10th/11th century, attributed to Abū-Sa'īd Abul-Khayr and Avicenna, :
References
- MacKenzie, D. N. (1971), “mōy”, in A concise Pahlavi dictionary, London, New York, Toronto: Oxford University Press, page 56
Etymology 3
Compare میوه (mêve), مویز (maviz, meviz). Akin to Judeo-Isfahani [script needed] (mew, “vine”).
Derived terms
- موستان (movestân)