妹妹
mèi​mei HSK1

younger sister

妹 mèi, mei younger sister

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

Components

女
女 Meaning component
nǚ, nü woman
未
未 Sound component
wèi not yet

Character Evolution

Oracle form
Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC
Oracle form
Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Spring and Autumn 771-476 BC
Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Western Han 202 BC-9 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Western Han 202 BC-9 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-SagartmwojHC.mˤə[t]-s younger sister

說文解字

《說文》：“妹，女弟也。从女，未聲。”

Sources

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