Etymology

dao

D2A1O1

Today it means: Any of various traditional Chinese swords with a curved, single-edged blade, primarily used for slashing and chopping. Full definition →

Chinese 刀
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dao · noun1

  1. Chinese · borrowed from刀
  2. English todaydao

From Chinese 刀 (dāo, literally “single-edged blade”). Possibly a doublet of dah.

dao · proper noun, noun2

  1. Chinese · derived from道
  2. English todaydao

From the pinyin romanization of Chinese 道 (Dào, literally “the Way”) or (dào, "circuit").

dao · noun3

Likely related to one of the preceding words ("Chinese sword", "Burmese knife") or from Indo-Aryan. Compare Bengali দাও (daō).

dao · noun4

  1. Cebuano · borrowed fromdao
  2. English todaydao

From Tagalog or Cebuano dao.

Dao · proper noun5

  1. Mandarin · derived from道
  2. English todayDao

From the Hanyu Pinyin romanization of Mandarin 道 (dào, literally “The Way”).

Words from the same roots

Chinese道 all →

waycircuittao

Mandarin道 all →

tao

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.