About
The character 奶, whose traditional form is 嬭, is a phono-semantic compound. Its left-side semantic component, 女 (woman, female), indicates its meaning's association with the female body and kinship, while the right-side component, 乃 in the simplified form and 爾 in the traditional form, primarily supplied phonetic value. The core original meaning of the character relates to female breasts and, by direct extension, the milk they produce. This connection is reflected in words like 牛奶 (cow's milk) and 奶酪 (cheese). From this primary meaning, the character developed a secondary, kinship-related usage to mean "grandmother", specifically the paternal grandmother, as seen in 奶奶. In some contexts and dialects, this usage can be extended or applied more broadly to elderly women, as in 阿奶. The structural simplification from 嬭 to 奶 streamlined the character by replacing the complex phonetic 爾 with the simpler and graphically related 乃.
Example Sentences Hide
我喜欢喝牛奶。
奶奶给我讲故事。
宝宝需要喝奶粉。
酸奶对健康有益。
早餐有牛奶和面包。
她每天喝一杯牛奶。
新鲜的牛奶味道很好。
妈妈用奶粉泡奶给弟弟喝。