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The Japanese word "mu" can be translated as "I reject the premise of your question" - a word which would be very useful in English. https://en.wikipedia.org/w
by Synaesthesia 11y ago
The Japanese word "mu" can be translated as "I reject the premise of your question" - a word which would be very useful in English. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mu_(negative) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mu_(negative)
- sdrothrock 11y agoIt's not really a word; it's a prefix or an abbreviation. Nobody would ever say "mu" alone, let alone to mean "I reject the premise of your question" in conversation, even if it were culturally acceptable.
- roel_v 11y agoWell it's used as a word in the mu koan. Might be archaic and not used in modern Chinese or Japanese, I don't know, but for 'mu' as the prefix we have (as far as I understand, which is admittedly not particularly deep) 'not'. 'Mu' as in 'your question is based on faulty premises' is the more useful form for Westerners, I'd argue.
- sdrothrock 11y agoThe koan in question is Chinese, not Japanese; Japanese allows for the reading of old Chinese with Japanese readings, but Japanese people won't understand it without specific knowledge of how to read Japanized Chinese, so it's in a really weird place in general -- it's definitely not something I'd call a "Japanese word," though.