About
The character 驽, with its traditional form 駑, is a phono-semantic compound consisting of the phonetic component 奴 (nú) and the semantic component 马 (mǎ). It originally denoted a horse of poor quality or one that is slow and clumsy, a meaning inferred from the components suggesting a horse of low status. This concrete sense later extended metaphorically to describe a person who is dull or incompetent, broadening its application from equine traits to human characteristics.