舞

wǔ

HSK 3.0 7

Rank #1144

Definitions

wǔ (verb) to dance

wǔ (verb) to wave; to brandish

Etymology

Originally written as 無, which is a pictograph of a person dancing, with ox tails or bird feathers hanging from his arms, to pray for rain. The 舛 (two feet) component was later added to emphasize the action of dancing after 無 was phonetically borrowed for different meanings.

About

The character 舞, denoting dance, derives from its graphical and conceptual predecessor 無, which originally depicted a ritual performer with flowing sleeves or ornaments, embodying the act of dancing itself before its semantic shift to express negation. To explicitly anchor the meaning in physical movement, the element 舛, representing the alternating motion of feet, was integrated below, creating a compound that visually emphasizes the steps of a dance. This structural clarification solidified its role as a verb for dancing, allowing its application to broaden over time from literal performance to metaphorical uses describing any fluent, controlled motion, such as the wielding of a sword or the playful manipulation of objects, thus extending its semantic range while preserving its core association with rhythmic and expressive movement.