雌

Translingual

Han character

雌 (Kangxi radical 172, 隹+6, 14 strokes, cangjie input 卜一心人土 (YMPOG), four-corner 2011₄, composition ⿰此隹)

References

• Kangxi Dictionary: page 1366, character 11
• Dai Kanwa Jiten: character 41998
• Dae Jaweon: page 1871, character 2
• Hanyu Da Zidian (first edition): volume 6, page 4098, character 18
• Unihan data for U+96CC

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Chinese

simp. and trad.		雌

Glyph origin

Historical forms of the character 雌
Warring States	Shuowen Jiezi (compiled in Han)	Liushutong (compiled in Ming)
Chu slip and silk script	Small seal script	Transcribed ancient scripts

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

	Old Chinese
些	*saːls, *sjaːl, *seːs
跐	*ʔsreːʔ, *ʔseʔ, *sʰeʔ, *ʔsreʔ
柴	*zreː
祡	*zreː
茈	*zreː, *ʔseʔ, *ze
眦	*zreːs
砦	*zraːds
寨	*zraːds, *slɯːɡ
啙	*ʔseː, *zeːʔ, *ʔseʔ
泚	*sʰeːʔ, *sʰeʔ
玼	*sʰeːʔ, *sʰeʔ, *ze
皉	*sʰeːʔ
鮆	*zeːʔ, *ʔse
眥	*zeːs, *zes
貲	*ʔse
髭	*ʔse
頾	*ʔse
訾	*ʔse, *ʔseʔ
鴜	*ʔse, *ze
鈭	*ʔse, *sʰe
姕	*ʔse, *sʰe, *ze
觜	*ʔse, *ʔse, *ʔseʔ
紫	*ʔseʔ
訿	*ʔseʔ
呰	*ʔseʔ
嘴	*ʔseʔ
雌	*sʰe
此	*sʰeʔ
佌	*sʰeʔ, *seʔ
庛	*sʰes
疵	*ze
骴	*ze, *zes
胔	*ze, *zes
飺	*ze
齜	*ʔsre

Etymology

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

Definitions

(deprecated template usage) 雌

1. (formal) female (describing animals and plants)

Usage notes

• Commonly used for animals and plants to mean "female" in academic contexts, less commonly used in non-academic contexts (use "母" instead), and not used for humans (use "女" instead). For example:

  母雞／母鸡  ―  mǔjī  ―  hen

  母牛  ―  mǔniú  ―  cow

Antonyms

• 雄 (xióng, “male”)

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Japanese

Kanji

雌

(Jōyō kanji)

Readings

• Go-on: し (shi, Jōyō)
• Kan-on: し (shi, Jōyō)
• Kun: め (me, 雌, Jōyō); めす (mesu, 雌, Jōyō)

Compounds

Compounds

• 雌花(しか) (shika)
• 雌(し)蕊(ずい) (shizui)
• 雌(し)性(せい) (shisei)
• 雌(し)伏(ふく) (shifuku)
• 雌雄(しゆう) (shiyū)

Etymology 1

Kanji in this term
雌
めす Grade: S
kun'yomi

Alternative forms

• (female animal): 牝

Noun

雌(めす) or 雌(メス) • (mesu) 

1. a female (plant or animal)
2. an internal socket

Antonyms

• 雄(おす) (osu, “male”)

Derived terms

• 雌(メス)黒(グロ)豹紋蝶(ヒョウモン) (mesugurohyōmon)

Etymology 2

Kanji in this term
雌
め Grade: S
kun'yomi

From Old Japanese.

Extension of 女 (me, “woman”). (Can this⁽⁺⁾ etymology be sourced?)

Alternative forms

• (female animal): 牝

Noun

雌(め) • (me) 

1. a female (plant or animal)

   Antonym: 雄 (o)

Derived terms

Derived terms

• 雌(め)牛(うし) (meushi)
• 雌(メ)刈萱(ガルカヤ) (megarukaya)
• 雌羊歯(メシダ) (meshida)
• 雌(め)蕊(しべ) (meshibe)
• 雌(め)滝(だき) (medaki)
• 雌(め)鳥(とり) (metori), 雌(め)鳥(どり) (medori)
• 雌螺子(めねじ) (meneji)
• 雌(め)花(ばな) (mebana)

Etymology 3

Kanji in this term
雌
めん Grade: S
irregular

From 雌 (me, “female plant or animal”, see above) +‎ ん (-n, abbreviation of case particle の (no)).

Alternative forms

• (female animal): 牝

Noun

雌(めん) • (men) 

1. a female (plant or animal)

   Antonym: 雄 (on)

Etymology 4

Kanji in this term
雌
し Grade: S
on'yomi

From Middle Chinese 雌 (MC tshje).

Affix

雌(し) • (shi) 

1. female (plant or animal)

   Antonym: 雄 (yū)

2. effeminate

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Korean

Hanja

雌 • (ja) (hangeul 자, revised ja, McCune–Reischauer cha, Yale ca)

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

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Old Japanese

Alternative forms

• (female animal): 牝

Etymology

Extension of 女 (me₁, “woman”). (Can this⁽⁺⁾ etymology be sourced?)

Noun

雌 (me₁) (kana め)

1. female (plant or animal)

Derived terms

• 雌鳥 (me₁do₂ri)

Descendants

• Japanese: 雌 (め, me)

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Vietnamese

Han character

(deprecated template usage) 雌 (thư)

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