About
The character 娣 is a phono-semantic compound. Its left component, the woman radical 女, indicates a connection to females, while the right component 弟 (younger brother) provides the phonetic element. Historically, it had a specific meaning within ancient marriage customs: a younger sister or niece who accompanied the primary bride to her new household to become a secondary wife. As those customs vanished, its definition broadened to a general familial term, primarily meaning a younger sister, and occasionally a sister-in-law in some regional dialects.
Etymology Hide
