Name: Pat
Country andRegion: Michigan
NativeLanguage: English
Student orTeacher: Student
Age or Grade:Senior
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Subject ofQuestion: Japanese
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What does "muda" mean in Japanese?
Apparently, there areseven different meanings.
Dear Pat: Hello.I am writing you on behalf ofAsk A Linguistics Tutor in response to your question. Well, I don't know what backgroundyou have in Japanese, but I can give you some basic information on theword muda. According to the Merriam Webster Japanese-Englishdictionary, muda as an noun means 'uselessness, waste, futility,no good, no avail, [in] vain,' and 'wasting time and labor.' Itscharacters are composed of first mu, meaning 'not' or 'nothing,'and da, meaning 'horse load; pack horse; sending by horses.' Considering the reading of this word, it is evidently a Chineseloan-word, which must have come from the idea in Chinese culture that ahorse without a load on its back is useless.
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