Where does “駄目” come from?

駄目 (Japanese) comes from Japanese 目, from Middle Chinese 目.

駄目 (Japanese): no good, useless, hopeless, bad

Definitions

  1. no good, useless, hopeless, bad

Ancestry of “駄目”, step by step

駄目 traces back through two separate lines of ancestry.

via Japanese 目

StepLanguageWordMeaning
1Japanese目an order in biology: smaller than a class, bigger...
2Middle Chinese目—

via Japanese 駄

StepLanguageWordMeaning
1Japanese駄loading; carrying; footwear
Every word from Middle Chinese 目 →Every word from Japanese 目 →