妇科 Origin — Dong Chinese Dictionary

fù, fu married women Simplified

Simplified form of 婦. Depicts a woman (女) using a broom (帚). Women were traditionally responsible for household chores in ancient times. 帚 also represents the sound.

Components

女 Iconic component

nǚ, nü woman

彐 Simplified component

jì snout

Shorthand for the 帚 component in the traditional character 婦.

Sources

Character origin: 漢語多功能字庫
Readings & variants: Unicode

kē section

Phonosemantic compound. 禾 represents the sound and 斗 represents the meaning. Depicts measuring out grain (禾) with a dipper (斗).

Components

禾 Sound Meaning component

hé grain stalk

斗 Meaning component

dòu ladle

Character Evolution

Clerical form — Clerical Western Han 202 BC-9 AD

Regular Modern

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Component uses

Sound (0 of 1 verified)

蝌

Historical Pronunciations

	Middle Chinese	Old Chinese
Zhengzhang		kʰoːl
		kʰoːls
Unicode	kuɑ

說文解字

《說文》：“科，程也。从禾，从斗。斗者，量也。”

Sources

Character origin: 漢語多功能字庫
Readings & variants: Unicode
Historical pronunciations: Zhengzhang Shangfang
Historical images: Academia Sinica
Etymology: Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)

fù, fu married women Traditional

Depicts a woman (女) using a broom (帚). Women were traditionally responsible for household chores in ancient times. 帚 also represents the sound.

Components

女 Iconic component

nǚ, nü woman

帚 Sound Iconic component

zhou broom

Change in sound

婦 and 帚 don't sound similar in modern Mandarin due to historical phonetic changes. They were more similar in Old Chinese.
婦 *mə.bəʔ (or *tsə.-? see Min)
帚 *[t.p]əʔ