About
The character 阃 is a phono-semantic compound originally meaning a door sill or threshold. The outer door radical 门 indicates the architectural boundary, while the internal component 困 (kùn) provides the pronunciation. Its traditional form 閫 uses the full door radical 門 with the same phonetic element. By metonymy, the meaning later extended to refer to the inner apartments or women's quarters in a traditional household, and subsequently to matters of the domestic sphere managed by the female head of the house.