娼妓
chāng​jì

prostitute

娼 chāng prostitute

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

Components

女
女 Meaning component
nǚ, nü woman
昌
昌 Sound component
chāng, chàng prosperous

Sources

Readings & variants
Unicode

妓 jì, jī prostitute

A working 支 woman 女; 支 also provides the pronunciation

Components

女
女 Meaning component
nǚ, nü woman
支
支 SoundMeaning component
zhī support, hold up

Character Evolution

Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld Chinese
Zhengzhangkre
ɡreʔ
Unicodeghyɛ̌

說文解字

婦人小物也。从女支聲。讀若跂行。

Sources

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