媼

See also: 媪

媼 U+5ABC, 媼 CJK UNIFIED IDEOGRAPH-5ABC ← 媻 [U+5ABB] CJK Unified Ideographs 媽 → [U+5ABD]

Translingual

Han character

媼 (Kangxi radical 38, 女+10, 13 strokes, Cangjie input 女田人廿 (VWOT), four-corner 4641₇, composition ⿰女𥁕)

References

• Kangxi Dictionary: page 268, character 19
• Dai Kanwa Jiten: character 6588
• Dae Jaweon: page 535, character 38
• Hanyu Da Zidian (first edition): not present, would follow volume 2, page 1071, character 21
• Unihan data for U+5ABC

Chinese

trad.		媼/媪
simp.		媪

Glyph origin

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

	Old Chinese
媼	*quːʔ
蝹	*quːʔ, *qrun, *qun
溫	*quːn
𥁕	*quːn
轀	*quːn
薀	*quːn, *qunʔ, *quns
殟	*quːn, *quːd
豱	*quːn
縕	*quːn, *qun, *qunʔ, *quns
韞	*quːn, *qunʔ
瘟	*quːn
搵	*quːns, *qunʔ, *quːd
氳	*qun
熅	*qun, *quns
馧	*qun, *quːd
蒕	*qun
蘊	*qun, *qunʔ, *quns
褞	*qunʔ
醞	*qunʔ, *quns
慍	*quns
膃	*quːd
榲	*quːd
嗢	*quːd, *qruːd

Pronunciation

• Mandarin

  (Pinyin): ǎo (ao³)

  (Zhuyin): ㄠˇ

• Cantonese (Jyutping): ou²
• Hakka

  (Sixian, PFS): ó / vún

  (Hailu, HRS): o^ˊ / vun^ˊ

• Eastern Min (BUC): óng / ūng
• Puxian Min (Pouseng Ping'ing): or³
• Southern Min

  (Hokkien, POJ): áu / ún

  (Teochew, Peng'im): ao² / ung²

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• Mandarin
  • (Standard Chinese)⁺
    • Hanyu Pinyin: ǎo
    • Zhuyin: ㄠˇ
    • Tongyong Pinyin: ǎo
    • Wade–Giles: ao³
    • Yale: ǎu
    • Gwoyeu Romatzyh: ao
    • Palladius: ао (ao)
    • Sinological IPA ^(key): /ˀɑʊ̯²¹⁴/
• Cantonese
  • (Standard Cantonese, Guangzhou–Hong Kong)
    • Jyutping: ou²
    • Yale: óu
    • Cantonese Pinyin: ou²
    • Guangdong Romanization: ou²
    • Sinological IPA ^(key): /ou̯³⁵/

Note: The zero initial /∅-/ is commonly pronounced with a ng-initial /ŋ-/ in some varieties of Cantonese, including Hong Kong Cantonese.

• Hakka
  • (Sixian, incl. Miaoli and Neipu)
    • Pha̍k-fa-sṳ: ó / vún
    • Hakka Romanization System: o^ˋ / vun^ˋ
    • Hagfa Pinyim: o³ / vun³
    • Sinological IPA: /o³¹/, /vun³¹/
  • (Hailu, incl. Zhudong)
    • Hakka Romanization System: o^ˊ / vun^ˊ
    • Sinological IPA: /o²⁴/, /vun²⁴/
• Eastern Min
  • (Fuzhou)
    • Bàng-uâ-cê: óng / ūng
    • Sinological IPA ^(key): /ouŋ²¹³/, /uŋ³³/
• Puxian Min
  • (Putian)
    • Pouseng Ping'ing: or³
    • Báⁿ-uā-ci̍: ô̤
    • Sinological IPA ^(key): /ɒ⁴⁵³/
  • (Xianyou)
    • Pouseng Ping'ing: or³
    • Sinological IPA ^(key): /ɒ³³²/
• Southern Min
  • (Hokkien)
    • Pe̍h-ōe-jī: áu / ún
    • Tâi-lô: áu / ún
    • Phofsit Daibuun: ao, uon
    • Sinological IPA (Xiamen): /au⁵³/, /un⁵³/
    • Sinological IPA (Quanzhou): /au⁵⁵⁴/, /un⁵⁵⁴/
    • Sinological IPA (Zhangzhou): /au⁵³/, /un⁵³/
    • Sinological IPA (Taipei): /au⁵³/, /un⁵³/
    • Sinological IPA (Kaohsiung): /au⁴¹/, /un⁴¹/
  • (Teochew)
    • Peng'im: ao² / ung²
    • Pe̍h-ōe-jī-like: áu / úng
    • Sinological IPA ^(key): /au⁵²/, /uŋ⁵²/

Note: ung2 - vernacular (俗讀).

---

• Middle Chinese: 'awX

Rime
Character	媼
Reading #	1/1
Initial (聲)	影 (34)
Final (韻)	豪 (89)
Tone (調)	Rising (X)
Openness (開合)	Open
Division (等)	I
Fanqie	烏晧切
Baxter	'awX
Reconstructions
Zhengzhang Shangfang	/ʔɑuX/
Pan Wuyun	/ʔɑuX/
Shao Rongfen	/ʔɑuX/
Edwin Pulleyblank	/ʔawX/
Li Rong	/ʔɑuX/
Wang Li	/ɑuX/
Bernhard Karlgren	/ʔɑuX/
Expected Mandarin Reflex	ǎo
Expected Cantonese Reflex	ou2

• Old Chinese

  (Baxter–Sagart): /*ʔˤuʔ/

  (Zhengzhang): /*quːʔ/

Baxter–Sagart system 1.1 (2014)
Character	媼
Reading #	1/1
Modern Beijing (Pinyin)	ǎo
Middle Chinese	‹ ʔawX ›
Old Chinese	/*ʔˁuʔ/
English	old woman
Notes for Old Chinese notations in the Baxter–Sagart system: * Parentheses "()" indicate uncertain presence; * Square brackets "[]" indicate uncertain identity, e.g. *[t] as coda may in fact be *-t or *-p; * Angle brackets "<>" indicate infix; * Hyphen "-" indicates morpheme boundary; * Period "." indicates syllable boundary.

Zhengzhang system (2003)
Character	媼
Reading #	1/1
No.	12967
Phonetic component	昷
Rime group	幽
Rime subdivision	1
Corresponding MC rime	襖
Old Chinese	/*quːʔ/

Definitions

媼

1. (literary) old woman
2. (literary) woman, matriarch, matron
3. (literary, archaic) contraction of 媼神 / 媪神 (ǎoshén), also known as the earth goddess Houtu [Han dynasty]
   • 111 A.D., “安世歌”, in 漢書 [Book of Han‎^[1], 禮樂志:

     后土富媼。

     Hòu tǔ fù ǎo

     Houtu, the Prosperous Matriarch.

Compounds

• 媼相 / 媪相
• 媼神 / 媪神 (ǎoshén)
• 嬭媼 / 奶媪
• 富媼 / 富媪
• 老媼 / 老媪 (lǎo'ǎo)
• 魔媼 / 魔媪

Further reading

• “媼”, in 漢語多功能字庫 (Multi-function Chinese Character Database)‎^[2], 香港中文大學 (the Chinese University of Hong Kong), 2014–
• “媼”, in 重編國語辭典修訂本 [Revised Mandarin Chinese Dictionary] (in Chinese), National Academy for Educational Research (Taiwan), 2021.
• Dictionary of Chinese Character Variants (教育部異體字字典), B02016
• 羅竹風 [Luo, Zhufeng], editor (1986–1994), “媼”, in 漢語大詞典 [Hanyu Da Cidian] (in Chinese), 1st edition, Shanghai: Shanghai Lexicographical Publishing House, →ISBN
• William Campbell (1913), “Áu 媼”, in A dictionary of the Amoy vernacular spoken throughout the prefectures of Chin-Chiu, Chiang-Chiu and Formosa (in Hokkien), 8th edition, Tainan: Taiwan Church Press, published 1961, →OCLC, page 9.
• William Campbell (1913), “Ún 媼”, in A dictionary of the Amoy vernacular spoken throughout the prefectures of Chin-Chiu, Chiang-Chiu and Formosa (in Hokkien), 8th edition, Tainan: Taiwan Church Press, published 1961, →OCLC, page 811.
• 徐兆泉 (2009), “媼”, in 臺灣四縣腔海陸腔客家話辭典 [Hakka Dictionary of Taiwan] (overall work in Mandarin and Hakka), Taipei: SMC Publishing Inc., page 983.
• 莆田市荔城区档案馆 [Putian City Licheng District Archives], editor (2022), “媪”, in 莆仙方言文读字汇 [Puxian Dialect Literary Reading Dictionary] (overall work in Mandarin and Puxian Min), page 3.

Japanese

Kanji

媼

(Hyōgai kanji)

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Readings

• Go-on: おう (ō)^{←あう (au, historical)}
• Kan-on: おう (ō)^{←あう (au, historical)}
• Kun: おうな (ōna, 媼)

References

• “^▲媼”, in 漢字ぺディア [Kanjipedia]‎^[3] (in Japanese), The Japan Kanji Aptitude Testing Foundation, 2015–2026

Korean

Hanja

媼 • (on, o, ol) (hangeul 온, 오, 올, revised on, o, ol, McCune–Reischauer on, o, ol, Yale on, o, ol)

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