歌女 (gē nǚ) — female singer (in old society, often with a social-class implication)

Definition

A '歌女' is a female singer who performs in entertainment venues like nightclubs, often carrying connotations of low social status or a tragic fate in early 20th-century Chinese literature.

noun
female singer (in old society, often with a social-class implication)
Measure word · 个

Examples

  • 歌女。
    Jiù shè huì de gē nǚ dà duō chū shēn pín kǔ.
    Most singing girls in old society came from poor families.
  • 歌女。
    Zhè bù xiǎo shuō miáo xiě le yí gè gē nǚ de bēi cǎn mìng yùn.
    This novel describes the tragic fate of a singing girl.
  • ，歌女。
    Mín guó shí qī, shàng hǎi yǒu hěn duō gē nǚ zài yè zǒng huì biǎo yǎn.
    During the Republic of China era, Shanghai had many singing girls performing in nightclubs.

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.

歌gēsong
女nǚwoman

A 女 who sings 歌 is a female singer.

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
欠欠qiànblow
Sound part声符shēngfú
哥
哥gē歌gē
Same sound today

The shape 歌 uses 哥 for the sound and 欠, meaning blow. It came from a form of 哥 used for singing.

Open 歌 →

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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