Strange ideograms that use the kanji for woman [女]

The Kanji [女] literally means woman. This ideogram also serves as a component of other kanji, where some have quite strange meanings. In this article, we will see several ideograms derived from the kanji for woman in Japanese [女].

In the Japanese language, we use the ideogram onna [女] to refer to woman or the female gender. We also use other words composed of the ideogram [女] such as shoujo [少女] which means young woman or girl, and also josei [女性] which means adult woman.

Onna [女] can also be used as a component or radical of other ideograms that also refer to the female sex, such as imouto [妹] which means younger sister or ane [姉] which means older sister. Together, these ideograms form shimai [姉妹] which means sister(s).

Other examples include the ideograms for daughter [娘], wife [妻], and bride [嫁]. The man also has an ideogram called otoko [男] with its own ideograms and words. The focus of this article is on women.

What do you need to know before reading this article?

We will constantly mention the words ideogram and kanji, I want to make it clear that they are both the same thing. Radical and component are parts of a single kanji, but keep in mind that sometimes we will refer to them as an ideogram.

Unfortunately, some Japanese ideograms appear to be somewhat sexist and even racist, but it is worth remembering that these ideograms originated in China, and they may have a different meaning there.

It is also worth noting that the same ideogram has had different meanings throughout its history in both Japan and China. With that in mind, I will now present the ideograms in the Japanese language that are composed with the kanji for woman.

Below we will see only unique ideograms and not the combination of ideograms. The ideograms we will discuss below and their components may not have an absolute meaning or are currently out of use. Do not try to use this article to learn new vocabulary.

好 – Like in Japanese

The first ideogram we will discuss is in the name of this site and means to like, to love, or something good. The ideogram for the word suki [好き] is composed of the ideograms for woman [女] + child [子]. Some say this indicates a mother’s love for her child and vice versa.

Some joke that [好] means young woman [女の子] and that men like young women, which is why they created the ideogram [好] to mean like. If you want to delve deeper into the ideogram of [好き], you can read our other article.

妬 and 嫉 – Jealousy and Envy in Japanese

For some reason, the Chinese or Japanese think that the best ideogram to represent jealousy and envy is a woman holding a stone or jewel. [妬] is nothing more than the combination of woman [女] and stone [石]. The verb formed by the ideogram is netamu [妬む].

The explanation for this ideogram is that the woman has a precious stone, and this causes envy in people. Another explanation is that the woman is so jealous that she is throwing a stone at another.

Another word that also means envy or jealousy is shitto [嫉妬]. Note that this word also contains another ideogram with the radical of woman [女]. Did you know that this other ideogram also means envy and jealousy?

The ideogram [嫉] is composed with the radical of woman [女] along with [矢] which ironically means arrow. In between these two mentioned ideograms, we find the radical [疔] which means carbuncle (Anthrax, a disease).

This gives a slight impression that jealousy or envy caused a wound in the woman [疔] and made her shoot arrows at her enemies. The ideogram is also derived from [乞] which means to beg and to ask.

姦 – 3 Women are Noisy and Naughty?

For some reason, a pervert had the brilliant idea to make the ideogram composed of 3 women kan [姦] mean fornication, malice, seduction, rape, orgy, and noise. This is one of the most controversial ideograms of all.

Why would 3 women together represent adultery or rape? Or worse, how did they come to the conclusion that 3 women together means something noisy? Probably, whoever had this idea really liked a harem.

This ideogram is rarely used, but it can still compose some verbs despite better alternatives existing. Let’s list some verbs below:

• 姦する – Kansuru – This verb means to commit adultery, fornicate, have illicit relations, rape, violate, and abuse;
• 姦しい – Kashimashi – This verb means noisy;
• 姦悪 – Kanaku – Evil, wicked person;
• 佞姦 – Neikan – Treacherous, wicked, perverse;

It is worth noting that there are also 2 variants of this ideogram with similar meanings, and they are probably the more current way of writing. We have [姧] which combines 2 women and the radical [干] which means to dry, drain, interfere, and intercede.

In addition to [姧], we have the more current variation of the ideogram that contains only one woman [奸] and has the same meanings as [姧] and [姦]. The main difference is that these ideograms [奸] and [姧] refer more to cunning or a cunning person. Both are variations of each other with the same ON reading.

女三人寄れば姦しい – Onna sannin yoreba kashimashii – When three women gather, it’s noisy!

A famous Japanese saying states that when three women come together, there is a lot of noise.

妖 婷 娥 嬌 – Are Women Attractive and Beautiful?

There are several ideograms that represent the beauty of a woman, ideograms that mean beautiful, attractive, graceful, and at the same time can mean something dark, a spell, or a calamity.

The first ideogram we will discuss is [妖] which, despite meaning attractive, seductive, and fascinating, also conveys the idea of something fantastical and is present in words that mean ghosts, witches, sorcery, and even magic. This is because this ideogram is the combination of woman [女] with calamity [夭]. Does seduction bring calamities to men?

The second ideogram [婷] means beautiful, attractive, and graceful. This kanji is not commonly used today but is composed of woman [女] with the ideogram [亭] which means pavilion, mansion, country house.

The third ideogram [娥] also means beautiful and attractive but is composed with the ideogram of woman [女] and the kanji [我] which is a pronoun used to refer to oneself (I), but conveys the idea of a self that is selfish with ego.

The fourth ideogram [嬌] means attractive and is composed of the combination of woman [女] with [喬] which indicates something high, a pride or joy. Again, this ideogram is suggesting that beautiful women are proud and think highly of themselves? Could it be an old version of the word famous?

嬲 – 娚 – 嫐 – Men and Women Together Don’t Work

There are 3 ideograms that are the combination of men and women, some bring interesting meanings. Let’s first talk about the combination of a woman [女] with a man [男] forming the ideogram [娚] which means to speak loudly.

This ideogram suggests that a man and a woman together are always fighting and arguing? This still happens today; we often see a couple speaking loudly and arguing, I didn’t imagine this was also common in Japan.

What happens when we have two men + one woman? The ideogram [嬲] means something worse than speaking loudly; this kanji is part of words like torture to death, torment, blame, pursue, meddle, annoy, and mock.

This word makes sense; men are always meddling and pursuing women, which causes them great torture. The verb naburu [嬲る] is used to refer to everything we mentioned. This time they recognized that the man is to blame for everything.

The last ideogram [嫐] suggests that the man is a shameless scoundrel who is with two women and commits adultery. Although the ideogram gives this impression, its meaning is light and indicates to flirt, to tease, to play, and to have fun with the opposite sex.

Other Ideograms and Words that Contain Woman [女]

There are thousands of Japanese ideograms that contain the kanji or radical for woman. It is not possible to talk in detail about each one of them. To conclude the article completely, I will leave a list of some ideograms that contain the radical for woman and their meanings.

• [婪] Covetousness – How does a woman and two trees mean to covet?
• [奴] Servant – Slave, someone who serves, derogatory pronoun for others and humble for oneself.
• [始] Beginning – Probably because life begins through a woman’s womb;
• [安] Cheap or Peaceful;
• [妄] Delusion, unnecessary, illusion;
• [如] Similar, alike, equal or better;
• [妃] Queen, princess;
• [妥] – Gentleness and peace;