妖姬
yāo​jī

beauty

妖 yāo, jiǎo strange

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

Components

女
女 Meaning component
nǚ, nü woman
夭
夭 Sound component
yāo, wò, wāi die young

Character Evolution

Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Three Kingdoms (Cao Wei) 222-280 AD
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld Chinese
Zhengzhangqrow
Unicodeqyɛu

Sources

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

姬 jī, yí beauty

Original meaning: a beautiful name for a woman

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

Components

女
女 Meaning component
nǚ, nü woman
𦣞
𦣞 Sound component
yí chin

Character Evolution

Oracle form
Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Mid Western Zhou ~900 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Mid Western Zhou ~900 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Mid Western Zhou ~900 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Late Western Zhou ~800 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Late Western Zhou ~800 BC
Seal form
Seal Late Spring and Autumn ~500 BC
Seal form
Seal Warring States (Chu) 475-221 BC
Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Three Kingdoms (Cao Wei) 222-280 AD
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-Sagartki[k](r)ə (family name)

說文解字

《說文》：“姬，黃帝居姬水以為姓。从女，聲。”

Sources

Character origin
漢語多功能字庫
Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Baxter-Sagart
Historical images
Academia Sinica
Etymology
Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)