嫗

嫗 (Kangxi radical 38, 女+11, 14 strokes, cangjie input 女尸口口 (VSRR), four-corner 4141₆, composition ⿰女區)

1. old woman, hag

• 妪

• Kangxi Dictionary: page 269, character 23
• Dai Kanwa Jiten: character 6640
• Dae Jaweon: page 537, character 13
• Hanyu Da Zidian (first edition): volume 2, page 1076, character 4
• Unihan data for U+5AD7

Phono-semantic compound (形聲 / 形声, OC *qos): semantic 女 (“woman”) + phonetic 區 (OC *qoː, *kʰo).

From Proto-Sino-Tibetan *ʔu (“egg; bird”). Cognate with Burmese ဥ (u., “egg; tuber”).

Pronunciation 1 is a departing tone derivation from pronunciation 2, literally "the one who is breeding" (Schuessler, 2007). Schuessler additionally adduces the following words as part of the same word family:

• 蓲 (OC *qoː, *kʰu, *qo, *qos, “to brood, hatch eggs”)
• 燠 (OC *quːʔ, *quːɡs, *quɡ, “warm, sweltering”)

嫗

1. (obsolete on its own in Standard Chinese) mother
2. (obsolete on its own in Standard Chinese) (old) woman

嫗

1. (obsolete on its own in Standard Chinese, of birds) to incubate; to sit on eggs
2. (obsolete on its own in Standard Chinese) to warm with one's body
3. (obsolete on its own in Standard Chinese) to raise; to nurture
4. (obsolete on its own in Standard Chinese) friendly; affable

• “嫗”, in 漢語多功能字庫 (Multi-function Chinese Character Database)‎^[1], 香港中文大學 (the Chinese University of Hong Kong), 2014–

(Hyōgai kanji)

• Go-on: う (u)
• Kan-on: う (u)
• Kan’yō-on: おう (ō)
• Kun: おうな (ōna, 嫗)、あたためる (atatameru, 嫗める)、おみな (omina, 嫗)

Originally /omi1na/. Likely realized as [omina] (see Jōdai Tokushu Kanazukai). The initial /o/ expressed "grown, large" and contrasted with /wo/ "young, youth" found in womina "woman". Contrasts with 翁 (okina).

嫗(おみな) • (omina) 

1. a grown woman
2. an old woman

嫗 • (gu) (hangeul 구, revised gu, McCune–Reischauer ku)

1. old woman, hag

嫗: Hán Nôm readings: ẩu

1. This term needs a translation to English. Please help out and add a translation, then remove the text {{rfdef}}.