Translingual

Stroke order

Han character

女 (radical 38 女+0, 3 strokes, cangjie input 女 (V), four-corner 4040₀)

1. Kangxi radical #38, ⼥ ‎(“woman”).

Descendants

• め
• メ

References

• KangXi: page 254, character 22
• Dai Kanwa Jiten: character 6036
• Dae Jaweon: page 516, character 19
• Hanyu Da Zidian: volume 2, page 1023, character 23
• Unihan data for U+5973

Chinese

Glyph origin

Historical forms of the character 女
Oracle bone script	Bronze inscriptions	Bamboo and silk script	Large seal script	Small seal script

Pictogram (象形) : a woman with breasts kneeling or standing. In modern form turned on left side: enclosed area is remnant of left breast (character's left, depicted woman's right), while right breast has disappeared. Graphically cognate to 母 (mǔ, “mother”), which has developed similarly, but also includes dots for nipples and has retained both breasts.

Etymology 1

Pronunciation 1

Definitions

女

1. woman

   Antonyms: 男 (nán)

   女人  ―  nǚrén  ―  woman

   女的  ―  nǚde  ―  woman; female

   請問女衛生間在哪兒？ [MSC, trad.]

   请问女卫生间在哪儿？ [MSC, simp.]

   Qǐngwèn nǚ wèishēngjiān zài nǎr? [Pinyin]

   Where is the ladies' lavatory please?

2. (for people) female

   ⇒ 母, 雌

   一個女演員 / 一个女演员  ―  yī ge nǚ yǎnyuán  ―  an actress

   一個女士兵 / 一个女士兵  ―  yī ge nǚ shìbīng  ―  a female soldier

3. daughter

   女兒 / 女儿  ―  nǚér  ―  daughter

4. (astronomy) The Girl, a Chinese constellation near Aquarius, 10th of the Twenty-Eight Mansions and part of the Black Turtle.

Pronunciation 2

Definitions

女

1. ^† to give one's daughter in marriage; to give as wife

Compounds

Etymology 2

Japanese

Kanji

(grade 1 “Kyōiku” kanji)

Readings

• Goon: にょ (nyo)
• Kan’on: じょ (jo)
• Kan’yōon: にょう (nyō)
• Kun: おんな (onna), め (me), obsolete おみな (omina), archaic おうな (ōna), archaic おな (ona), archaic おなあ (onā), archaic おなご (onago)
• Nanori: おな (ona), た (ta), つき (tsuki), な (na)

Compounds

Etymology 1

From Old Japanese. /womi₁na/ → /womina/ → /omina/. The initial /wo/ expressed "small, youth" and contrasted with /o/ "grown, old" (as in 嫗 ‎(omina) "old woman"). The medial /mi/ is cognate with 女 ‎(me, “female, woman”).

Pronunciation

• Kun'yomi
• (Tokyo) おみな [òmíná] (Heiban - [0])^[1]
• (Tokyo) お​みな [óꜜmìnà] (Atamadaka - [1])^[1]
• IPA^(key): [o̞mĩna̠]

Noun

女 ‎(hiragana おみな, romaji omina, historical hiragana をみな)

1. (archaic) a young woman
2. (archaic) a woman

Etymology 2

From earlier /womina/: /womina/ → /woɴna/ → /oɴna/.

Pronunciation

• Kun'yomi
• (Tokyo) おんな​ [òńnáꜜ] (Odaka - [3])^[2][1]
• IPA^(key): [õ̞nna̠]

Noun

女 ‎(hiragana おんな, romaji onna, historical hiragana をんな)

1. a woman

Usage notes

This has superseded omina, and is now one of the standard Japanese words for woman.

Antonyms

• 男 (おとこ) ‎(otoko): man, male

Etymology 3

From Old Japanese. /me₁/ → /me/

Pronunciation

• Kun'yomi
• (Tokyo) め​ [méꜜ] (Atamadaka - [1])^[2]
• IPA^(key): [me̞]

Alternative forms

• 雌, 牝, 妻

Noun

女 ‎(hiragana め, romaji me)

1. female
2. woman
3. wife
   • circa 890: Taketori Monogatari,page 3:

     女（め）の女にあづけてやしなはす。

Usage notes

Used more in compounds than on its own.

Derived terms

See also

• 雌 (めす) ‎(mesu)
• 嫗 (おんな) ‎(onna)
• くノ一 (いち) ‎(kunoichi)

References

1. 1 2 3 1998, NHK日本語発音アクセント辞典 (NHK Japanese Pronunciation Accent Dictionary) (in Japanese), Tōkyō: NHK, ISBN 978-4-14-011112-3
2. 1 2 2006, 大辞林 (Daijirin), Third Edition (in Japanese), Tōkyō: Sanseidō, ISBN 4-385-13905-9

• Horiuchi, Hideaki; Ken Akiyama (1997) Taketori Monogatari, Ise Monogatari, Tōkyō: Iwanami Shoten, ISBN 4-00-240017-4

Korean

Hanja

女 • ‎(nyeo>yeo)
Eumhun:

• Sound (hangeul): 녀>여()

• Name (hangeul): 계집 (revised: gyejip, McCune-Reischauer: kyejip, Yale: kyeycip)

1. female, woman

Vietnamese

Han character

女 (nữ, nữa, lỡ, nhỡ, nớ, nợ, nỡ, nự, như, nhương)

1. This term needs a translation to English. Please help out and add a translation, then remove the text {{rfdef}}.

References

• Nom Foundation