Etymology:

Elements  ----  Roof, head (limit 亠) + field 田. Phonetic series 亩.

S. 畝. Orig. the fields of every 每 (mei phonetic) family. 每 changed to 久. Now ridge 亠 between fields 田 > fields (limited by the ridges) > unit of area (size of the fields).

Main Words:

亩产 mǔchǎn yield per mǔ.
地亩dìmǔ fields; farmland.
畎亩quǎnmǔ fields.
田亩tiánmǔ field.

Discussion and sources

The complex form 畝, interpreted as the amount of fields worked for long time, make confuse to discover the real origin of this character. 畝 is one of the variants in use before the character was standardized. Other of the variants, with mei 每 as a component, could be older, as the phonetic seems to follow the rule mei > mu. This would be interpreted as the fields of every 每 family.

SELECTED BOOKS ABOUT CHINESE CHARACTERS

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