舅嫂
jiù​sǎo

sister-in-law

舅 jiù, jiu mother's brother

Phonosemantic compound. 男 represents the meaning and 臼 represents the sound.

Components

男
男 Meaning component
nán male
臼
臼 Sound component
jiù mortar

Character Evolution

Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 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-SagartgjuwX[ɡ](r)uʔmother"s brother
Zhengzhangɡuʔ
Unicodeghiǒu

說文解字

母之兄弟爲𦥶，妻之父爲外𦥶。从男臼聲。

Sources

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

嫂 sǎo, sao sister-in-law

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

Components

女
女 Meaning component
nǚ, nü woman
叟
叟 Sound component
sǒu, sōu, xiāo old man

Character Evolution

Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Western Han 202 BC-9 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Western Jin 266-316 AD
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Old Chinese
Zhengzhangsuːwʔ

Sources

Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Zhengzhang Shangfang
Historical images
Academia Sinica