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The character "媪" in its traditional form is written as "媼", composed of the female radical "女" on the left and the component "昷" on the right, which historically provided both phonetic and semantic clues, the latter relating to warmth. Its core meaning has consistently referred to an older woman, though its specific connotations shifted from a general term for an elderly female to one with more formal or respectful undertones, sometimes used to denote a matron or a mother.
Etymology Hide
