妾

Translingual

Han character

妾 (Kangxi radical 38, 女+5, 8 strokes, cangjie input 卜廿女 (YTV), four-corner 0040₄, composition ⿱立女)

Derived characters

• 接 𮀨

References

• Kangxi Dictionary: page 257, character 39
• Dai Kanwa Jiten: character 6147
• Dae Jaweon: page 523, character 6
• Hanyu Da Zidian (first edition): volume 2, page 1040, character 8
• Unihan data for U+59BE

---

Chinese

trad.		妾
simp. #		妾

Glyph origin

Historical forms of the character 妾
Shang	Western Zhou	Shuowen Jiezi (compiled in Han)	Liushutong (compiled in Ming)
Oracle bone script	Bronze inscriptions	Small seal script	Transcribed ancient scripts

Characters in the same phonetic series (妾) (Zhengzhang, 2003) 

	Old Chinese
霎	*sreːb, *sreb
翣	*sraːb
帹	*sraːb
接	*ʔseb
椄	*ʔseb
菨	*ʔseb
鯜	*ʔseb, *sʰeb
妾	*sʰeb
淁	*sʰeb
踥	*sʰeb

Pictogram (象形) – a woman with a headdress. Cognate to 女 with 辛 on top. However, modern form is graphically 立 + 女 – the headdress has simplified to 立, rather than 辛.

Etymology

Cognate to 捷 (OC *zeb, “victory; booty”) (Schuessler, 2007). See there for more.

Definitions

(deprecated template usage) 妾

1. slave woman
2. concubine
3. (archaic, humble) I; me (used by females to show modesty)
4. a surname

Synonyms

• (slave woman): 女奴 (nǚnú)
• (concubine): 姨太太 (yítàitai), 小老婆 (xiǎolǎopo); (archaic) 側室／侧室 (cèshì), 偏房 (piānfáng)

Compounds

(deprecated template usage)

---

Japanese

Kanji

妾

(uncommon “Hyōgai” kanji)

1. concubine

Readings

• Go-on: しょう (shō)^{←せふ (sefu, historical)}
• Kan-on: しょう (shō)^{←せふ (sefu, historical)}
• Kun: めかけ (mekake, 妾); わらわ (warawa, 妾)

Compounds

Compounds

• 妾狂(めかけぐる)い (mekakegurui)
• 妾出(しょうしゅつ) (shōshutsu)
• 妾宅(しょうたく) (shōtaku)
• 妾腹(しょうふく) (shōfuku), 妾腹(めかけばら) (mekakebara)
• 世間妾形気(せけんてかけかたぎ) (sekentekakekatagi)
• 愛妾(あいしょう) (aishō)
• 妻妾(さいしょう) (saishō)
• 侍妾(じしょう) (jishō)
• 男妾(だんしょう) (danshō), 男妾(おとこめかけ) (otokomekake)
• 蓄妾(ちくしょう) (chikushō)
• 寵妾(ちょうしょう) (chōshō)
• 洋妾(ようしょう) (yōshō)

Etymology 1

Kanji in this term
妾
めかけ Hyōgaiji
kun'yomi

For pronunciation and definitions of 妾 – see the following entry.

【めかけ】 [noun] 目掛け, 目掛, 妾: (by extension) kept woman; mistress; concubine Alternative spellings 目掛け, 目掛

(This term, 妾, is an alternative spelling of the above term.)

Etymology 2

Kanji in this term
妾
わらわ Hyōgaiji
kun'yomi

For pronunciation and definitions of 妾 – see the following entry.

【わらわ】 [pronoun] (archaic, women's speech, humble) I; me [pronoun] (Can we verify(+) this sense?) (modern fiction, women's speech) I; me (used by haughty women of the highest classes of society); usually accompanied by archaic speech styles Alternative spelling 私

(This term, 妾, is an alternative spelling of the above term.)

Etymology 3

Kanji in this term
妾
てかけ Hyōgaiji
kun'yomi

For pronunciation and definitions of 妾 – see the following entry: てかけ

(The following entry is uncreated: てかけ.)

Etymology 4

Kanji in this term
妾
おんなめ Hyōgaiji
kun'yomi

For pronunciation and definitions of 妾 – see the following entry: おんなめ

(The following entry is uncreated: おんなめ.)

---

Korean

Hanja

妾 (eum 첩 (cheop))

1. 작은마누라 (jagEun-manura) concubine

---

Vietnamese

Han character

妾: Hán Nôm readings: thiếp, thê

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