Pictograph of a hand grabbing a woman's hair to take her as a wife. In ancient China, women of marriageable age wore hairpins (compare with 每).
Components
Character Evolution
Component uses
Historical Pronunciations
| Middle Chinese | Old Chinese | Gloss | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Baxter-Sagart | tshej | [tsʰ]ˤəj | consort, wife |
| tshejH | [tsʰ]ˤəj-s | give as wife |
說文解字
《說文》：“妻，婦與夫齊者也。从女，从屮，从又。又，持事，妻職也。，古文妻从、女。，古文貴字。”
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)
Depicts a woman (女) with a damaged reputation (䇂 is a pictograph of a tool used to tattoo the face of criminals as punishment).
Components
Character Evolution
Component uses
Historical Pronunciations
| Middle Chinese | Old Chinese | Gloss | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Baxter-Sagart | tshjep | [tsʰ]ap | concubine |
說文解字
《說文》：“妾，有辠女子，給事之得接於君者。从，从女。《春秋》云：‘女為人妾，妾不娉也。’”
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)