妓
Meanings
CC-CEDICT
- 1.prostitute
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Wiktionary
- 1.female entertainer; female performer of song and dance
- 2.prostitute
- 3.Used in 妓姕.
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Etymology
Phono-semantic compound (形聲 /形声, OC *kre, *ɡreʔ): semantic 女 + phonetic 支 (OC *kje). Attested earliest in Shuowen Jiezi and Wèi-Jìn period's literature (possible pronunciations *kɨe or *gɨeX); a hypohetical OC form would be *kre (Schuessler, 2007). Apparently loaned from Vietic (ancient 越 (yuè) in southern China). Compare Proto-Vietic *-keːʔ (“woman, female”) (whence Vietnamese cái (“female”) & gái (“girl, female”)), elsewhere in Mon-Khmer, Proto-Waic *krih girl", Proto-North-Bahnaric *kdri: "female". Alternatively, Wang (1982) relates this to 技 (jì, “skill”), yet this may be folk etymology (Schuessler, 2007). Schuessler also points to other foreign words which meant "woman, girl" yet referred to women of low social standing in ancient China; e.g. 嬖 (bì), 嬯 (tái) (ibid.).
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Stroke order
Components
Components from cjk-decomp · MIT
More examples & usage (AI)
Synonyms
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Derived terms
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