Where does “無一文” come from?

無一文 (Japanese) comes from Japanese 一, from Japanese 始め, from Japanese 始める — begin; start; initiate; originate.

無一文 (Japanese): pennilessness

Definitions

  1. pennilessness

Ancestry of “無一文”, step by step

無一文 traces back through 3 separate lines of ancestry.

via Japanese 一

StepLanguageWordMeaning
1Japanese一one, 1; "term relating to the number one"; unity
2Japanese始めbeginning, the start of an activity or time...
3Japanese始めるbegin; start; initiate; originate

via Japanese 文

StepLanguageWordMeaning
1Japanese文the mon, an old currency; a unit of length for...
2Middle Chinese文—

via Japanese 無

StepLanguageWordMeaning
1Japanese無nothing, nothingness; mu; the null set: neither...
Every word from Japanese 始める →Every word from Japanese 始め →Every word from Japanese 一 →