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女婴 (nǚ yīng) — baby girl; female infant

Definition

noun
baby girlfemale infant
Measure word · 个

Examples

  • 女婴。
    Tā zuó tiān shēng le yí gè nǚ yīng.
    She gave birth to a baby girl yesterday.
  • 女婴。
    Nà ge nǚ yīng cháng dé hěn kě ài.
    That baby girl is very cute.
  • 女婴。
    Yī yuàn lǐ yǒu hěn duō nǚ yīng hé nán yīng.
    There are many baby girls and baby boys in the hospital.

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.

女nǚfemale
婴yīngbaby

女 means female and 婴 means baby, together naming a female baby.

Characters in this word

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 →

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

This origin belongs to the traditional form 嬰; 婴 is its simplified writing.

Meaning part形符xíngfú
貝貝bèi
Sound part声符shēngfú
癭
癭yǐng嬰yīng
Same sound today

The traditional form 嬰 pairs 貝, carrying the meaning, with 癭 for the sound; the simplified 婴 is a shorthand and its parts are not the historical components.

Open 婴 →
Appears in
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