妖妇 Origin — Dong Chinese Dictionary

yāo, jiǎo strange

Phonosemantic compound. 女 represents the meaning and 夭 represents the sound.

Components

女 Meaning component

nǚ, nü woman

夭 Sound component

yāo, wò, wāi die young

Character Evolution

Clerical form — Clerical Three Kingdoms (Cao Wei) 222-280 AD

Regular Modern

▼ More ▲ Less

Historical Pronunciations

	Middle Chinese	Old Chinese
Zhengzhang		qrow
Unicode	qyɛu

Sources

Readings & variants: Unicode
Historical pronunciations: Zhengzhang Shangfang
Historical images: Academia Sinica

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

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