About
The character 娉 is a phono-semantic compound, with the female radical 女 (nǚ) on the left indicating its semantic link to women, and the phonetic component 甹 (pīng) on the right. Its core meaning refers to feminine elegance and graceful bearing. It is most often seen in classical literature and poetry in the binome 娨婷 (pīngtíng), which describes a young woman of slender, graceful, and attractive form. Historically, it has also occasionally been used as an interchangeable variant for 聘 (pìn), meaning to betroth or arrange a marriage, though this is a secondary usage.
Etymology Hide
