仕女 (shì nǚ) — court lady (in ancient China); traditional Chinese painting of beautiful women

Definition

Two related senses: in Tang/Song court life, 仕女 refers to ladies-in-waiting or noblewomen; in Chinese art history, 仕女画 is the long-standing genre of paintings depicting beautiful women.

noun
court lady (in ancient China)traditional Chinese painting of beautiful women
Measure word · 幅
Easily confused

Examples

  • 仕女。
    Táng dài de shì nǚ chuān zhuó huá lì de fú shì.
    Tang dynasty court ladies wore splendid clothes.
  • 仕女。
    shì nǚ Huà shì zhōng guó chuán tǒng yì shù de zhòng yào tí cái.
    The genre of beautiful-women paintings is an important subject in traditional Chinese art.
  • 仕女。
    Bó wù guǎn lǐ chén liè le xǔ duō táng dài shì nǚ de huà xiàng.
    The museum displayed many portraits of Tang dynasty court ladies.

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.

仕shìofficial
女nǚwoman

仕 gives the sense of court, and 女 means women.

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
⺅Written in full as人rénperson
Sound part声符shēngfú
士
士shì仕shì
Same sound today

仕 pairs ⺅ (person) with 士, which sounds like 仕 and means a person in an official role, so the shape shows someone serving as an official.

Open 仕 →

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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