About
The character "嫂", meaning "elder brother's wife", is constructed from the semantic component "女" for woman and the phonetic component "叟", which originally depicted a hand searching in a dim house, carrying an associated sense of age or seniority. This composition reflects the character's core meaning of a senior female relation within the family structure. Over time, its definition narrowed and solidified specifically to denote the wife of one's elder brother, moving from a potentially broader reference to an older woman to a precise familial role within the Confucian kinship system. The traditional form of the character maintains this same structure, with no simplified variant existing, as the character was not altered during the script simplification process.
Etymology Hide
Example Sentences Hide
这是我嫂子。
大嫂昨天来我家做客。
我嫂嫂是一位护士。
王嫂做的菜非常好吃。
表哥和嫂子的感情很好。
李阿姨的儿媳对她像亲妈一样。
他大嫂在社区里很受人尊敬。
我哥哥和嫂子计划下个月去旅行。