續一切經音義 1.171

1.171

Thumb / big toe (拇指) (The first [character] has the fanqie mò + pǔ [mǔ]. The Yunying states: 'Mǔ refers to the great digit of the hand or foot.' The Shuowen states: 'It derives from hand (手) with the phonetic mǔ (母).' The character mǔ (母) derives from woman (女), with two dots in the middle resembling the shape of a mother's two breasts. Some write it as 毋, which has the sound wú, meaning a particle of prohibition; 母 and 毋 are completely different).