Taxonomy of meanings for 女:　　

  • nǚ (OC: naʔ MC: ɳiɔ) 尼吕切 上 廣韻：【禮記曰女者如也如男子之教尼吕切又尼慮切二 】
  • nǜ (OC: nas MC: ɳiɔ) 尼據切 去 廣韻：【以女妻人也尼據切二 】
    • FEMALE
      • nnonreferentialfemales; often specifically: unmarried and unbetrothed female
      • nabconceptthe biological category of the female
      • nadNfemale
      • feature> SOFT
        • nadVsoft, weak, sexy
      • adult> WOMAN
        • nunmarried woman; girl
        • nadNfemale, characteristic of women
        • nnonreferentiala woman
        • nwomanCH
        • ndefinitethe particular womanDS
        • married> WIFE
            • marked derivation:nǜ marry off woman> MARRY
              • vttoN1+.vtoN2omgive (someone) as one's daughter in marriage to someone contextually determinate
      • young> GIRL
        • nccgirl (On analogy with 男 one might be tempted to take this to be a case of n[adN], i.e. short for 女人. But this seems curiously unnatural.)待考
        • nadNthe girl's NDS
        • offspring> DAUGHTER
          • npost-Ndaughter of (person or clan)
          • ntdaughter
          • n[post-N]your daughter, one's daughter
          • nt(post-N)daughter of the contextually determinate NDS
          • ncpost-V{NUM}NUM daughtersDS
      • =汝 YOU
        • npro2. person singulare.g. 汝"you (my son), familiar, informal you
        • npro.adNfamiliar possessive your
        • npro=Nyou (personal first person plural pronoun being followed by N in apposition which specifies the scope of the plural) 汝四子 you the four children
        • nproimperativeyou (in imperative sentences)
        • nproreference=readeryou, my reader
        • npro=Nprvocativearchaic: You Npr!
        • npro.adNN=nonhuyour
        • npro.postVtreference=nonhuyou (referring to a non-human - sometimes even abstract - object)
        • nprreflexive.self-referential-汝you! (addressing oneself)
        • npro.postVtreference=emperoryou (referring to emperor!)
        • npro.postVtobject pronoun: you
        • npro+Vtobjectpreposed object: you
        • npro.adNassociated withyourCH
        • npronon-humanyou (addressed to a non-human sometimes even inanimate object)CH
        • nproquasi-reader: you, as if the reader of the text (which was, however, taken over from a spoken setting)LZ
    • nǚEGO
      • n[post-npro2.][post=npro1]I, your daughterDS

    Additional information about 女

    說文解字: 【女】，婦人也。象形。王育說。凡女之屬皆从女。 【尼呂切】

      Criteria
    • TEACH

      1. The current general word for training, instructing, and disciplining others is jiào 教 (ant. xué 學 "study") and the standard main aim of jiào 教 is unquestioning obedience, professional skill, and intellectual conformity to the standard set by the teacher, and the word connotes use of authority and sometimes even coercion. The primary aim of jiào 教 is action conforming to a standard, and the word is commonly nominalised.

      2. Huì 誨 (ant. xí 習 "study persistently") refers to systematic and persistent efforts to teach and inculcate intellectual or practical skills ( 誨之琴 "taught him to play the zither") and moral understanding of students ( 誨女知之 "I will teach you so you understand"), and the word never implies coercion or any threat of force. Huì 誨 can be mutual, or refer to equals teaching equals, even subordinates teaching superiors 諫誨 "remonstrate with and instruct". The word is not commonly nominalised. The primary aim of huì 誨 is understanding.

      3. Huà 化 refers to successful disciplining and teaching, typically on a large social scale. See INFLUENCE

      4. Qǐ 啟 and fā 發 refer to the opening up of new intellectual and moral dimensions for others.

      5. Xùn 訓 refers in a rather abstract way to formal strict instruction and training aimed primarily at professional skill.

      6. Zhào 詔 refers to instruction by means of useful information or warning.

      7. Fēng 風 is occasionally used to refer to teaching by example.

      8. Liàn 練 refers specifically to military training and only occasionally to other forms of drill.

      9. Dào 道 refers to the content of what is taught, and is largely restricted to postnominal position, as in 儒道 "Confucian teaching".

    • RAMPART

      1. Dié 堞 refers both to the battlements on the wall and to the crenels of it.

      2. Pì 埤 is another term for the battlements on the wall.

      Cf also Nǔqiáng 女牆

    • MUSICIAN

      1. The current word for female musical entertainers is nǚ yuè 女樂.

      2. Shī 師 (also expanded to refers to yuè shī 樂師 ) refers to a male music master whose competence is supposed to be practical as well as theoretical.

      3. Gǔ gōng 瞽工 is a colloquial word for a musician.

    • ENTERTAINER

      1. The most current general word for an entertainer is jì 妓, and this word refers to any entertainer including artists, dancers, and clowns of any kind.

      2. Chàng 倡 refers occasionally to an entertainer specialised in singing, especially the main singer.

      3. Lìng 伶 refers specifically to a musician-entertainer who accompanies the main singers chàng 倡.

      4. Yōu 優 and yōu rén 優人 refers to dwarf-clowns who perform through comic talk, comic action and slapstick comedy.

      5. Pái 俳 and more often pái yōu 俳優 refer to a superior specialist in comic talk.

      6. Zhū rú 侏儒 is a general word for a dwarf, and since the dwarf at court typically acted as a clown, the term came also to refer generally to clowns.

      <div>7. Nu# yuè 女樂 is a standard general term for female musical entertainers or female musicians.</div><div><br></div><div>A splendid comparative overview is found in Beatrice K. Otto, Fools are Everywhere. The Court Jester Around the World, Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 2001<br></div><br>

    • BACHELOR

      1. There are no competing terms for "bachelor" in classical Chinese. The current word is kuàng fū 曠夫 (opp. yuàn nu# 怨女 "unmarried woman of marrigeable age").

    • SIBLING

      1. Kūn dì 昆弟 is occasionally used for siblings.

      2. Dì 弟 is used to refer to younger siblings, but only in the form nǚ dì 女弟 "younger sister".

    • MALE

      1. The current general term is nán 男 (opp. nǚ 女 "female) or, more administratively and technically nán zǐ 男子 (opp. nǚ zǐ 女子 "female").

      2. Mǔ 牡 refers to the male of birds and beasts in purely biological terms.

      3. Xióng 雄 denotes maleness, but often connotes virility, strength and domination as well.

      4. Zhàng fū 丈夫 (opp. fù rén 婦人 "woman") is a current, probably colloquial, word for an adult male.

      5. Fū 夫 is a dignified term for an adult male.

    • WOMAN

      1. The current general word for a woman is nu# 女 (ant. nán 男 "male"), and the word can also refer to unmarried women.

      2. Fù 婦 (ant. fū 夫 "married man") refers to a woman who is either married or definitely of marriagable age.

      3. Aυ 媼 and yù 嫗 (ant. wēng 翁 and sōu 叟 "old man") refer to old women.

      4. Bì 婢 (ant. pú 僕 "male of low status") refers to a woman of low social status.

      5. Nu# zǐ 女子 (ant. nán zǐ 男子 "male") can refer to a female child (as well as being an administrative way of referring to - preferably counted - females).

    • MYTHICAL ANIMALS

      1. Sìlíng 四靈 is a general term for four supernational creatures: dragon lóng 龍, tiger hǔ 虎, phoenix fènghuáng 風凰, and turtle guī 龜. The main source for names of various mythical creatures is the SHJ, with its splendid illustrations.

      2. Lóng 龍 is the most divine of all mythical animals. The dragon brings a happiness and good fortune, and an emperor is viewed as its embodiment.

      3. Jiāo 蛟 is a flood dragon, a mythical creature capable of invoking storms and floods. Also written 鮫.

      4. Shé 蛇 (snake) was worshipped in ancient times. The supernational creature of the north, xuánwǔ 玄武 is depicted as a turtle with a snake, and creators of humankind, Fúxī 伏羲 and Nǚwā 女媧 have both snake tails. The dragon was often viewed as a kind of snake.

      5. Guī 龜 (turtle) is one of the four supernatural creatures. It symbolizes a longevity and good fortune. The turtle was often used in divination and sacrifices, and its images appears as a base of the stelae.

      6. Fènghuáng 風凰 (phoenix) is one of the four supernatural creations, the most elevated of all birds. It symbolizes happiness, good omen, and peace.

      7. Qílín 麒麟 (mythical unicorn) is one of the four supernatural creations. It is a symbol of an extreme humanity of a king or emperor, as well as good fortune and a peace.

      8. Bìxié 辟邪 is a mythical animal resembling a deer with two long horns and a long tail which can expel evil influences.

    • CITY WALL

      1. Chéng 城 refers to the inner city wall. It was originally built of rammed earth, but during the Han there were also walls built of bricks or stones. See also FORTIFY.

      2. Guō 郭 is an outer city wall. Sometimes this is also called kuò 廓.

      3. Dié 堞 refers both to the battlements on the wall and to the crenels of it. See RAMPART

      4. Nuχiáng 女牆 refers to the battlements on the wall. See RAMPART

      5. Yú 隅 refers to the corner of the wall, usually raised above the level of the wall and with building on it.

    • FEMALE

      1. The current general word for a female of any species is cí 雌 (ant. xióng 雄 "male").

      2. Nu# 女 (ant. nán 男 "male") refers specifically to human females.

      3. Pìn 牝 (ant. mǔ 牡 "male") refers to specifically to females of animals.

      4. Zì 牸 refers to females of buffalo, but sometimes also of tiger, rhinoceros, or horse.

      5. Mǔ 母 (ant. gōng 公 "male") refers to adult females of some species, including spirits. NB incidentally: Mǔ jī 母雞 is current, while mǔ niǎo 母鳥 does not seem to be found.

      6. Kūn 坤 (ant. qián 乾 "metaphysically: male") is a metaphysical way of characterising things as belonging to the female realm. (NB incidentally and irrelevantly as a modern Chinese reflex kūn biǎo 坤錶 "women's watch".)

    • DIVIDE

      1. The most current general word for physically diving things into separate parts is fēn 分 (ant. yī 一 "treat as one undivided whole, to unite") and this word may refer to destroying the unity of what is being divided.

      2. Bié 別 (ant. tóng 同 "treat as the same, treat the same way") is to separate physically what can be separated out without interfering with integrity of the things separated. ( 別男女 "separate men from women")

      3. Xī 析 is to split and divide what is naturally unsplit and undivided.

      4. Lí 離 (ant. hé 合 "combine into one") is to keep apart what naturally is apart.

    • GIRL

      NB: The distinction between "girl" and "daughter" is very often unclear.

      1. A current general word for a girl is rú zǐ 孺子, and in the plural nu � mèi 女妹.

      2. Zǐ nu �子女 refers to post-puberty girls often used as gifts or as bribes.

      3. Nu �女 can refer to a girl.

      Word relations
    • Ant: (GIRL)子/BOY Zǐ 子 refers generally to children, but it is often hard to distinguish the meaning from that of boy, when the reference obviously is to males. See CHILD.
    • Ant: (FEMALE)男/MALE The current general term is nán 男 (opp. nǚ 女"female) or, more administratively and technically nán zǐ 男子 (opp. nǚ zǐ 女子 "female").
    • Oppos: (YOU/PLUR)予/EGO Yǔ2 予／余 is personal and often autobiographical, speaking of the author in the past. It became a preferred pronoun used by poets.
    • Oppos: (YOU)我/EGO Wǒ 我 is contrastive and emphatic by Warring States times (in OBI it was not yet in opposition to wú 吾 and was the standard unmarked pronoun during earlier stages of the language). The word freely occurs in subject, mofifying, and object position and often has an idiomatic meaning like "I for my part" and the formal slightly depersonalised "our party". NB: The word also serves as an impersonal pronoun meaning "one", German man, French on.