姨母 (yí mǔ) — maternal aunt (mother's sister) | tongtong Chinese Dictionary

Definition

Formal/literary term for mother's sister. More literary than 姨妈, which is the everyday spoken form.

noun

maternal aunt (mother's sister)

Measure word · 位

Examples

姨母。
Wǒ měi gè zhōu mò dōu qù yí mǔ jiā chī fàn.
Every weekend I go to my aunt's house for dinner.
姨母，。
Wǒ de yí mǔ duì wǒ hěn hǎo, cháng cháng gěi wǒ mǎi lǐ wù.
My maternal aunt is very kind to me and often buys me gifts.
姨母，。
yí mǔ Hé wǒ mā ma shì jiě mèi, cháng dé hěn xiàng.
My maternal aunt and my mother are sisters; they look very alike.

Origin

Compound word

构词法gòucífǎ

偏正piānzhèngModifier + head

The first part narrows down the second: it says what kind of thing the head is.

母mǔfemale kin

“姨” marks the aunt relation and “母” marks a female kin, together referring to the mother’s sister.

Characters in this word

Most characters — around four in five — are built this way: one part hints at the meaning, the other at the pronunciation.

女夷姨

Meaning part形符xíngfú

女女nǚwoman

Sound part声符shēngfú

夷

夷yí姨yí

Same sound today

姨 combines 女 (woman) with 夷, which gives the sound. The 女 part marks it as a woman-related word.

No reliable origin is recorded for this character.

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