妓

妓 (Kangxi radical 38, 女+4, 7 strokes, cangjie input 女十水 (VJE), four-corner 4444₇, composition ⿰女支)

• 𣇠

• Kangxi Dictionary: page 256, character 17
• Dai Kanwa Jiten: character 6083
• Dae Jaweon: page 520, character 15
• Hanyu Da Zidian (first edition): volume 2, page 1029, character 17
• Unihan data for U+5993

Historical forms of the character 妓
Shuowen Jiezi (compiled in Han)
Small seal script

Phono-semantic compound (形聲 / 形声, OC *kre, *ɡreʔ) : semantic 女 + phonetic 支 (OC *kje).

Attested earliest in Shuowen Jiezi and Wèi-Jìn period's literature (possible pronunciations *kɨe or *gɨeX); a hypohetical OC form would be *kre (Schuessler, 2007).

Apparently loaned from Vietic (ancient 越 (yuè) in southern China). Compare Proto-Vietic *-keːʔ (“woman, female”) (whence Vietnamese cái (“female”) & gái (“girl, female”)), elsewhere in Mon-Khmer, Proto-Waic *krih girl", Proto-North-Bahnaric *kdri: "female". Alternatively, Wang (1982) relates this to 技 (jì, “skill”), yet this may be folk etymology (ibid.).

Schuessler also points to other foreign words which meant "woman, girl" yet referred to women of low social standing in ancient China; e.g. 嬖 (bì), 嬯 (tái) (ibid.).

妓

1. (literary) female entertainer; female performer of song and dance
2. prostitute

• (both senses): 娼 (chāng)

妓

1. Used in 妓姕.

(Hyōgai kanji)

1. geisha; prostitute

• Go-on: ぎ (gi)
• Kan-on: き (ki)
• Kun: あそびめ (asobime)、こ (ko)、わざおぎ (wazaogi)

From Middle Chinese 妓 (“female entertainer”).

• (Tokyo) ぎ (Atamadaka – )^[1]
• IPA^(key):

妓(ぎ) • (gi) 

1. female entertainer

From Middle Chinese 妓 (MC gjeX). Recorded as Middle Korean 기〯 (kǐ) (Yale: ki) in Hunmong Jahoe (訓蒙字會 / 훈몽자회), 1527.

Korean Wikisource has texts containing the hanja:

妓

Wikisource

妓 (eumhun 기생 기 (gisaeng gi))

1. hanja form^? of 기 (“prostitute”)

• 국제퇴계학회 대구경북지부 (國際退溪學會 大邱慶北支部) (2007). Digital Hanja Dictionary, 전자사전／電子字典.

妓: Hán Việt readings: kĩ, kỹ
妓: Nôm readings: kĩ, kỹ, đĩ

1. This term needs a translation to English. Please help out and add a translation, then remove the text {{rfdef}}.