婆媳
pó​xí

mother and daughter-in-law

婆 pó, po mother-in-law

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

Components

女
女 Meaning component
nǚ, nü woman
波
波 Sound component
bō waves

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-Sagartba[b]ˤa[j] 婆娑 saunter, dance

Sources

Character origin
漢語多功能字庫
Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Baxter-Sagart

媳 xí daughter-in-law

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

Components

女
女 Meaning component
nǚ, nü woman
息
息 Sound component
xi, xī breathe, rest

Historical Pronunciations

Old Chinese
Zhengzhangslɯɡ

Sources

Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Zhengzhang Shangfang