Glyph Origins

Radical ⼥ (38)

女 (U+5973)

ShangShang
(Bin-Chu)		ShangShangEarly
W.Zhou		Middle
W.Zhou		Zhanguo
(Qin)		QinQinE.HanNanbei
(N.Wei)
集9177合11443集1909集856集2672集4276駰乙.背
[如]		關331北.醫方中原文物1984.3
[婦]		張玄墓誌

?{如} *na “to obey” ♪→ {女} *nraʔ “woman” & {母} *mˤəʔ “mother”

Depiction of a kneeling person with crossed arms. Later a decorative line was added. Initially it was used for both words {女} and {母}. Later after the glyph 母 was created, 女 began to be used only for {女}.

  • 季旭昇 2014 - 說文新證 [2nd ed.] (848)
  • 姚孝遂 1989 - 再論古漢字的性質
  • 劉釗 2011 - 古文字構形學 [2nd ed.] (27-28)
  • 黃德寬 2014 - 古漢字發展論 (107-108)

好 (U+597D)

好¹

Shang
(Bin)		Middle
W.Zhou		Chunqiu
(Qin)		QinE.HanNanbei
(N.Wei)
懷882
[包]		集3754石鼓.吾車睡.日乙241建寧三年殘碑南0265X

?{抱} *[m.p]ˤuʔ “to embrace” ♪→ {好} *[C̥.n]ˤuʔ “good”

Unknown. Probably differentiated form of 包 *PU (depiction of a person embracing a baby for {抱}).

  • 謝明文 2015 - 釋甲骨文中的“抱”——兼論“包”字

好²

{好} *[ts]əʔ “Zi (female surname)”

女 WOMAN + ♪子 *TSƏ.

  • 曹定雲 1993 - 殷墟婦好墓銘文研究
  • Childs-Johnson E. 2003 - Fu Zi: The Shang Woman Warrior

嬰 (U+5B30)

Chunqiu
(Chu)		Chunqiu
(Chu)		Zhanguo
(Qin)		QinE.HanTang
集10386集52近出1193睡.種69熹經297五經文字

{嬰} *ʔeŋ “necklace” ♪→ {嬰} *ʔeŋ “baby”

One or two 貝 COWRIE + ♪⿱口女 *ɁEŊ (depiction of a person (女) with a goitre for {癭} *ʔeŋʔ “goitre”).

  • 馮勝君 2009 - 試說東周文字中部分“嬰”及從“嬰”之字的聲符——兼釋甲骨文中的“癭”和“頸”