Definitions

beautiful

Etymology phono-semantic

woman

Semantic: Phonetic:

About

is a phono-semantic compound with the woman radical at bottom and the phonetic on top. It originally denoted female beauty or obedience. Later, the character's use shifted from describing human traits to naming astronomical and geographical features: a specific star or constellation in traditional Chinese astronomy, the Wujiang River, and Wuzhou, a historical prefecture in modern-day Zhejiang province, thus becoming a proper noun.

Etymology Hide

Seal etymology image
Seal Shuowen (~100 AD)
Clerical etymology image
Clerical Qin dynasty (221-206 BC)
Clerical etymology image
Clerical Western Han dynasty (202 BC-9 AD)
Traditional Modern
Simplified Modern