The right side of the character for 'muda' (waste) is not 'dog'!

Last updated: 2025/12/16

This series, [Commonly Miswritten Characters], introduces characters that middle and high school students often write incorrectly, as observed by Shime-no, an instructor for essays and compositions, and serves as a warning to students and examinees.

Today, we will discuss the character 'da' (駄) in 'muda' (無駄, waste). In the compositions, essays, and statements of purpose written by middle and high school students, I often see cases where the right side of this character 'da' is written as 'dog' (犬). I would like to talk about this today.

In this series, I introduce 'characters that are easily miswritten when writing by hand.' Since only '無駄' appears when you type 'muda' on a PC or smartphone, such mistakes are almost impossible. This is because there is no character that combines the 'horse' radical with 'dog' that is read as 'da.' However, it seems that some people accidentally make this mistake when writing by hand. Perhaps even adults might accidentally make this mistake when writing by hand.

Regarding this 'da' in 'muda,' this single character actually carries the meaning of 'horse.' A horse used for carrying cargo is called a 'daba' (packhorse), and this 'da' itself means 'packhorse.' Also, this 'da' also carries the meaning of a horse carrying cargo on its back, the act of carrying it, and the cargo itself that is carried. Furthermore, although this is mainly a usage from the Edo period, 'da' was also used as a unit to indicate the amount of cargo one horse could carry.

Also, when used as a prefix, it means 'worthless or trivial things.' 'Dasaku' (a poor work) is an example of this.

'Since packhorses (daba) were considered inferior horses unsuitable for riding, this character 'da' was prefixed to nouns such as 'dagashi,' 'damono,' and 'dajare' (bad puns) to express the meaning of something worthless or trivial. (Nippon Daihyakka Zensho (Nipponica))', in other words, it can be said that the meaning of 'trivial' was derived through a shift in meaning.

Now, if we look at a Chinese character dictionary here, we can see that the original form of this 'da' was '馱,' which means the 'horse' radical with 'da' (大) on the right. Since it is a phono-semantic character, the 'horse' radical on the left represents the meaning (form), and the 'da' (tai/dai) on the right represents the sound (phonetic). Because it is a character related to horses, it has the 'horse' radical.

As you can see by now, there is not even a hint of the meaning of 'dog' in 'da' (駄). Therefore, it is clear that writing the right side of the 'da' in 'muda' as 'dog' is incorrect.

Please be careful when writing by hand. The right side of the 'da' in 'muda' is not 'dog.' It is 'tai' (太).

(I was helped by the following sites for my search)

For those who are worried about 'how to write a statement of purpose,' this 'Shime-no style template for creating a statement of purpose' is recommended!