名媛 (míng yuán) — socialite; famous beauty from a wealthy or illustrious family

Definition

A '名媛' is a famous, wealthy young woman known publicly for her elite social life and elegant lifestyle — the Chinese counterpart of a 'socialite'. The word stresses her family background and high-society visibility, not just beauty.

noun
socialitefamous beauty from a wealthy or illustrious family
Measure word · 位

Examples

  • 名媛,。
    Tā shì yí wèi lái zì shàng hǎi de zhī míng míng yuán, jīng cháng chū xí gè zhǒng cí shàn huó dòng.
    She is a well-known socialite from Shanghai who often attends various charity events.
  • ,名媛。
    Zài xiàn dài shè jiāo méi tǐ shàng, hěn duō míng yuán tōng guò fēn xiǎng shēng huó fāng shì huò dé le dà liàng guān zhù.
    On modern social media, many socialites gain a lot of attention by sharing their lifestyles.
  • 名媛,。
    Zhè ge wǎn yàn jù jí le chéng zhōng suǒ yǒu de míng yuán, chǎng miàn shí fēn shē huá.
    This dinner party gathered all the socialites in the city, and the scene was very luxurious.

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.

名míngfamous
媛yuànyoung lady

名 means famous and 媛 is a young lady, so a famous beauty from a noted family.

Characters in this word

Two or more meaningful parts placed together so that their meanings combine into a new one.

名 puts 夕 (crescent moon) above 口 (mouth), showing a name spoken in the dark.

Open 名 →

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
女女nǚwoman
Sound part声符shēngfú
爰
爰yuán媛yuán
Same sound today

媛 is built from 女 (woman) and 爰. The 女 part means 'woman', and 爰 gives the sound yuán.

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