Taxonomy of meanings for 末:　　

Additional information about 末

說文解字: 【末】，木上曰末。从木，一在其上。 【莫撥切】

Criteria
• IMPORTANT
  

  1. The most general term for the relative importance and crucial nature of something is yào 要 (ant. xì 細 ).

  2. Zhòng 重 (ant. qīng 輕 "of no consequence") focusses on what carries considerable weight in a certain context.

  3. Zhǔ 主 (ant. cì 次 "secondary") refers to what is crucial and primary, or dominant, in a certain context.

  4. Běn 本 (ant. mò 末 ) refers to what is basic and and a matter of substance in a context.

  5. Shǒu 首 (wěi 尾 / mò 末 ) refers what deserves to come first or what deserves to be regarded of first importance.

  6. Jí 極 refers to the ultimate most elevated point of something.

  7. Jī 機 refers to the crucial mechanism that makes something work properly.

• UNIMPORTANT
  

  1. The current general term for unimportance is qīng 輕 (ant. zhòng 重 "important").

  2. Mò 末 (ant. běn 本 "basic and important")) refers to something being marginal as opposed to other things that are central or crucial.

  3. Xì 細 (ant. jù 巨 "of tremendous importance") and wēi 微 (ant. dà 大 "of great importance") refer to things being trifling and without serious impact on a situation.

  4. Huǎn 緩 (ant. jí 急 "urgent and important") refers to something being less important because it is less urgent.

  5. Xiǎo 小 (ant. dà 大 "of great importance") is sometimes used as a colourless term denying the importance of something.

• BEGIN
  

  [ARCHAIC/CURRENT]

  [[COMMON/RARE]]

  [ELEVATED/VULGAR]

  [FORMAL/INFORMAL]

  1. Shǐ 始 (ant. zhōng 終 "bring to an end; come to an end" and chéng 成 "bring to a successful end, complete") refers quite generally to the initiating of any action. But see also ARISE

  [GENERAL]

  2. Zào 造 (all ant. jì 繼 "continue" and chéng 承 "continue") can come to refer to the beginning of an action.

  [ARCHAIC]; [[RARE]]

  3. Chū 初 (ant. mò 末 "end") is purely chronological and refers to the early stage of something that persists, without indicating any lasting influence of that early stage on later developments. See FIRST

  4. Qǐ 起 is sometimes used in a rather formal way for getting underway with a major activity.

  [FORMAL]

  5. Qǐ 啟 typically refers to a deliberate act of initiation, by Heaven as well as by man, and the word generally belongs to the dignified style of historians or rhetoricians.

  [ELEVATED], [FORMAL]

  6. Zhāo 肇 is an elevated and archaic word referring to the initiation of rituals and the like.

  [ELEVATED]; [[RARE]]

• WEATHER
  

  There is no commonly used general concept for the weather in pre-Buddhist Chinese. The closest we come is perhaps qì 氣 as in ZUO 天有六氣, but consider the whole passage:

  天有六氣， (In the same way) there are six heavenly influences,

  降生五味， which descend and produce the five tastes,

  發為五色， go forth in the five colours,

  徵為五聲。 and are verified in the five notes;

  淫生六疾。 but when they are in excess, they produce the six diseases.

  六氣曰陰、陽、風、雨、晦、明也， Those six influences are denominated the yin, the yang, wind, rain, obscurity, and brightness.

  分為四時， In their separation, they form the four seasons;

  序為五節， in their order, they form the five (elementary) terms.

  過則為菑： When any of them is in excess, there ensues calamity.

  陰淫寒疾， An excess of the yin leads to diseases of the cold;

  陽淫熱疾， of the yang, to diseases of heat;

  風淫末疾， of wind, to diseases of the extremities;

  雨淫腹疾， of rain, to diseases of the belly;

  晦淫惑疾， of obscurity, to diseases of delusion;

  明淫心疾。 of brightness to diseases of the mind.

• TIP
  

  1. The general term for the tip of any branch or twig is 末. This word is commonly used in transferred meanings.

  2. Miǎo 杪 refers to the end of any branches in a tree, and the word never has any transferred meaning.

  3. Biāo 標 refers to the tips of branches at the top of a tree.

  4. Duān 端 can be used to refer to the end of anything including a branch or twig, but it is abstract in basic meaning.

  NB: 2. Shāo 梢 is a Tang dynasty colloquial term referring to the top of twigs or very small twigs.

• BASIS
  

  [ABSTRACT/CONCRETE]

  [[COMMON/RARE]]

  [DYNAMIC/STATIC]

  [GENERAL/SPECIFIC]

  1. The basic word is běn 本 "the trunk, the main part" (ant. mò 末 "marginal part") and this word refers to the crucial constituent of something in any sense.

  [GENERAL], [STATIC]; [[COMMON]]

  2. Duān 端 "beginning" (ant. mò 末 "marginal part") is current in the meaning "initial crucial element, initiating fundamental property", and this is a very philosophial subtle word which conceives of what is crucial as dynamically affecting the rest.

  [ABSTRACT], [DYNAMIC]

  3. Gēn 根 "the root from which things spring" (ant. miǎo 杪 "small twig") is often used together with běn 本, but can also by itself be used in metaphorical senses, but the word is much rarer than běn 本 in this meaning.

  [STATIC]

  4. Jī 基 is sometimes used in a literal sense of "foundation on which something rests", but the word is common in figurative senses as in "the solid foundations of the state".

  [CONCRETE], [STATIC]

  5. Zōng 宗 is ethereal and always abstract, sometimes even purely semantic in meaning.

  [ABSTRACT], [STATIC]; [[RARE]]

  6. Yīn 因 (ant. guǒ 果 "result") is causal in meaning and emphasises the dynamic causal link between the yīn 因 and whatever is based on it.

  [GENERAL], [DYNAMIC]

• PRECEDE
  

  1. The current word for being first or coming first in time, or for being first in the order of importance, is xiān 先 (ant. hòu 後 "later").

  2. Chū 初 (ant. zú 卒 "finally" and zhōng 終 "end") refers to the very first stage in a historical development, and the word never has any abstract reference to an order of importance. See also BEGIN

  3. Shǒu 首 (ant. mò 末 "final point"(and sometimes in nominal usages wěi 尾 "tail end")) sometimes refers to the first person to do something important.

Word relations
• Ant: (UNIMPORTANT)本/BASIS The basic word is běn 本 "the trunk, the main part" (ant. mò 末 "marginal part") and this word refers to the crucial constituent of something in any sense. [GENERAL], [STATIC]; [[COMMON]] 4 Attributions
• Ant: (END)端/BEGIN2 Attributions