妖娆
yāo​ráo

alluring

妖 yāo, jiǎo strange

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

Components

女
女 Meaning component
nǚ, nü woman
夭
夭 Sound component
yāo, wò, wāi die young

Character Evolution

Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Three Kingdoms (Cao Wei) 222-280 AD
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld Chinese
Zhengzhangqrow
Unicodeqyɛu

Sources

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

娆 ráo, rǎo, yǎo graceful Simplified

Components

女
女 Meaning component
nǚ, nü woman

woman

尧
尧 Sound component
yáo a legendary ancient emperor-sage

Sources

Readings & variants
Unicode

嬈 graceful Traditional

Components

女
女 Meaning component
nǚ, nü woman

woman

堯
堯 Sound component
legendary ancient emperor-sage

Character Evolution

Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Old Chinese
Zhengzhangnjewʔ
neːwʔ
hŋeːws

說文解字

苛也。一曰擾、戲弄也，一曰嬥也。从女堯聲。

Sources

Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Zhengzhang Shangfang
Historical images
Academia Sinica
Etymology
Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)