娴淑
xián​shū

ladylike

娴 xián elegant Simplified

Components

女
女 Meaning component
nǚ, nü woman

woman

闲
闲 Sound component
xián fence

Sources

Readings & variants
Unicode

淑 shū, chù good

Phonosemantic compound. 氵 represents the meaning and 叔 represents the sound.

Components

氵
氵 Meaning component
shui, shuǐ water

氵 is a component form of 水.

叔
叔 Sound component
shū, shu uncle

Character Evolution

Bronze form
Bronze Mid Western Zhou ~900 BC
Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Western Jin 266-316 AD
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-Sagartdzyuwk[d]iwkfine, good
Zhengzhangɦljɯwɢ
Unicodezhiuk

說文解字

清湛也。从水叔聲。

Sources

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

嫻 elegant Traditional

Components

女
女 Meaning component
nǚ, nü woman

woman

閑
閑 Sound component
xián fence

Historical Pronunciations

Old Chinese
Zhengzhangɡreːn

Sources

Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Zhengzhang Shangfang