Weird ideograms that use the kanji for woman [女]

Kanji [女] literally means woman. This ideogram also serves as a component of other kanji, where some have very strange meanings. In this article, we are going to look at various ideograms derived from the Japanese kanji for woman [女].

In the Japanese language, we use the ideogram onna [女] to refer to a 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 gender 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 are in the characters of daughter [娘], wife [妻] and bride [嫁]. The man also has an ideogram called otoko [男] with its own ideograms and words. The focus in this article goes to women.

What do you need to know before reading this article?

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

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

It's also worth noting that the same ideogram had different meanings throughout its history both in Japan and China. Keeping this in mind, I will now present the ideograms in the idioma japonês that are composed with the kanji for woman.

Below we will see only single ideograms and not the junction of ideograms. The ideograms that we are going to talk about below and their components may not have an absolute meaning or are currently in disuse. Do not try to use this article to learn new vocabulary.

好 - Like in Japanese

The first ideogram we are going to talk about is in the name of this site and it means like, love or something good. The character of the word suki [好き] is composed of the characters of woman [女] + child [子]. Some claim that 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 learn more about 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 less than the junction 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 gemstone and this causes envy in people. Another explanation is that the woman is so jealous that she is throwing a rock 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 for 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] together with [矢] which ironically means arrow. In the middle of these two ideograms we find the radical [疔] which means anthrax (anthrax, a disease).

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

姦 - Are 3 women 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 that idea really liked a harem.

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

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

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

In addition to [姧] we have the most current variation of the ideogram that contains only one woman [奸] and have the same meanings of [姧] and [姦]. The main difference is that these characters [奸] and [姧] refer more to cunning or 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 - Bringing three women together, noise!

A famous Japanese saying says that putting 3 women together makes 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 that at the same time can mean something dark, a spell or a calamity.

The first ideogram that we are going to talk about is [妖] which, although it means attractive, seductive and fascinating, it also conveys the idea of something fanciful and is present in words that mean ghosts, witches, witchcraft and even magic. That's because this ideogram is the junction of woman [女] with calamity [夭]. Does seduction bring calamities to men?

The second character [婷] means beautiful, attractive and graceful. This kanji is not commonly used nowadays but it 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 for woman [女] and the kanji [我], which is a pronoun used to refer to oneself (I), but conveys the idea of a selfish ego.

The fourth character [嬌] means attractive and is composed of the junction of woman [女] with [喬] that indicates something high, pride or joy. Again is this ideogram suggesting that beautiful women are proud and self-righteous? Is it an old version of the word famous?

嬲 - 娚 - 嫐 - Men and women together don't give certo

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

Is this ideogram suggesting that a man and a woman live together fighting and arguing? Currently this still happens, we always see a couple talking loudly and arguing, I didn't imagine that this was also common in Japan.

What happens when we have two men + one woman? The character [嬲] means something worse than talking out loud, this kanji is part of words like torture to death, torment, blame, chase, mess, tease and make fun.

That word is right, men are always stirring and chasing women, which causes them great torture. The verb naburu [嬲る] is used to refer to everything we mentioned. This time they recognized that 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, tease, play, and have fun with the opposite sex.

Other ideograms and words that contain woman [女]

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

• [婪] Cobiça - How does a woman and two trees mean to covet?
• [奴] Servo - Slave, someone who serves, pejorative pronoun for others and humble for oneself.
• [始] Start - Probably because life begins through the womb of a woman;
• [安] Cheap or Peaceful;
• [妄] Disillusion, unnecessary, illusion;
• [如] Similar, alike, equal or better;
• [妃] Queen, princess;
• [妥] - Kindness and peace;