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姒 is a phono-semantic compound. The left-side component 女 (woman) provides the semantic category, indicating the character relates to a female, while the right-side component 以 serves as the phonetic. Historically, 姒 designated the wife of an older brother or a respectful term for an older sister, and the 女 radical strictly limits the character to female kinship roles. It was also one of the ancient noble surnames of early Chinese dynasties. In modern Chinese, however, its use in kinship terminology has become obsolete in everyday speech.
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