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舞女 (wǔ nǚ) — taxi dancer; dance-hall hostess

Definition

舞女 (wǔ nǚ) refers specifically to a woman who is paid to dance with customers in a dance hall — a cultural image of early-20th-century Shanghai, distinct from a 舞蹈演员 (dancer/performer).

noun
taxi dancerdance-hall hostess
Measure word · 个

Examples

  • 舞女。
    Zhè bù xiǎo shuō miáo shù le jiù shàng hǎi wǔ nǚ de shēng huó.
    This novel describes the life of taxi dancers in old Shanghai.
  • 舞女。
    Tā nián qīng shí céng zài wǔ tīng dāng guò wǔ nǚ.
    When she was young, she worked as a taxi dancer in a ballroom.
  • 舞女。
    Hěn duō wǔ nǚ qí shí bìng bú shì zì yuàn xuǎn zé zhè fèn gōng zuò de.
    Many taxi dancers actually did not voluntarily choose this line of work.

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.

舞wǔdance
女nǚwoman

舞 means dance and 女 means woman, denoting a woman who dances.

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.

Meaning part形符xíngfú
舛舛chuǎnsteps, feet in convergent direction
Sound part声符shēngfú
無
無wú舞wǔ
Same sound today

舞 combines 舛, showing feet in converging steps, with 無 above. 無 gave the sound and also preserved its older meaning of dancing, so the shape points to dancing.

Open 舞 →

A drawing of the thing itself, worn down over three thousand years into a few strokes.

女 shows a woman with folded arms, kneeling or standing. In the modern form the figure faces right, and the small enclosed part is what is left of one arm.

Open 女 →
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