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老处女 (lǎo chǔ nǚ) — old maid, spinster (often derogatory, outdated)

Definition

An older, outdated and often derogatory term for an unmarried woman — roughly 'old maid' or 'spinster'. The neutral, respectful modern alternative is 未婚女性 or 单身女性.

noun
old maidspinster (often derogatory, outdated)
Measure word · 个

Examples

  • ，老处女。
    Tā yí bèi zi méi jié hūn, bié rén bèi hòu jiào tā lǎo chǔ nǚ.
    She never married all her life; people call her an old maid behind her back.
  • '老处女'，。
    Xiàn zài hěn shǎo yǒu rén yòng ' lǎo chǔ nǚ ' zhè ge cí le, tīng qǐ lái bú tài zūn zhòng.
    Nowadays few people use the term 'old maid'; it sounds disrespectful.
  • ，老处女。
    Zài gǔ dài, nǚ rén bù jié hūn dào le sān shí suì jiù bèi chēng wéi lǎo chǔ nǚ.
    In ancient times, a woman who didn't marry by age thirty was called an old maid.

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.

老lǎoold
处女virgin female
处chùvirgin女nǚfemale
偏正Modifier + head

老 means old, and 处女 refers to a virgin female; together they describe a woman long unmarried.

Characters in this word

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

The shape 老 combines 人 (man), 毛 (hair), and 匕 (cane), showing a man with long hair leaning on a cane.

Open 老 →

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 處; 处 is its simplified writing.

Meaning part形符xíngfú
夂夂zhǐ
几几jǐtable
Sound part声符shēngfú
虍
虍hū處chǔ
Close in sound todayThe sound part was a clue two thousand years ago — it often still helps, but not always.

The traditional form 處 pairs 虍, giving the sound, with 夂 and 几, a table, as meaning parts. The simplified 处 is a shorthand and its parts are not the historical components.

Open 处 →

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 →
Appears in
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