娣姒
dì​sì

concubines

娣 dì younger sister

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

Components

女
女 Meaning component
nǚ, nü woman
弟
弟 Sound component
dì, di younger brother

Character Evolution

Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-SagartdejXlˤəjʔyounger secondary wife
Zhengzhangdiːlʔ
diːls

說文解字

女弟也。从女从弟，弟亦聲。

Sources

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

姒 sì elder sister

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

Components

女
女 Meaning component
nǚ, nü woman
以
以 Sound component
yǐ by means of
Change in sound

Character Evolution

Bronze form
Bronze Late Western Zhou ~800 BC
Clerical form
Clerical Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Western Jin 266-316 AD
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Sources

Character origin
漢語多功能字庫
Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical images
Academia Sinica