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The character 娈 is an adjective expressing physical beauty or loveliness, historically used to describe women or young people. Its traditional form, 孌, is a phono-semantic compound: the lower element 女 (nǚ, 'woman') suggests the meaning, while the upper element 䜌 (luán) indicates the pronunciation. In the simplified script, the complex phonetic 䜌 is replaced by the simpler 亦 (yì), resulting in 娈, which still carries the semantic 女 to convey the idea of feminine beauty. Over time, the word's application shifted from a general term for attractiveness to being particularly associated with beautiful young men in certain literary contexts, most famously in the term 娈童 (luántóng).
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