妻

Stroke order

妻 (Kangxi radical 38, 女+5, 8 strokes, cangjie input 十中女 (JLV), four-corner 5040₄, composition ⿱⿻一肀女)

• 凄 啛 悽 捿 棲 淒 䃀 緀 褄 㼮 郪 鶈 萋 霋 𠉯 𪥼 𫋂 𫌿 𨧬 𨹷 𩸸 𨿩 𪗍 𫅆 𠆜 𠬎 𬐢

• Kangxi Dictionary: page 257, character 30
• Dai Kanwa Jiten: character 6140
• Dae Jaweon: page 522, character 25
• Hanyu Da Zidian (first edition): volume 2, page 1036, character 2
• Unihan data for U+59BB

Historical forms of the character 妻
Western Zhou	Shuowen Jiezi (compiled in Han)	Liushutong (compiled in Ming)
Bronze inscriptions	Small seal script	Transcribed ancient scripts

Ideogrammic compound (會意／会意) : 肀 (“hand grabbing hair”) + 女 (“woman”) ― a man grabbing a woman's hair to show ownership (marriage by capture).

Thought to be cognate to 齊 (OC *dzêi, “same, equal (adj.), in line”) (SWJZ; Karlgren, 1956) & interpreted as "an equal to her husband"; yet this is unlikely considering the realities of ancient societies (Schuessler, 2007).

Schuessler instead proposes Austroasiatic etymology: he reconstructs 妻 (OC *tshə̂i) < *k-sə̂i and compares it to Middle Khmer (kansai, “wife”) (whence Khmer កន្សៃ (kɑnsay, “wife”)) and Khmer (*khsay, “be female”) with *ka(n)- being a female marker (ibid.).

妻

1. wife

妻

1. ^† to give a wife to; to give as a wife; to become married to a man

   • 子謂公冶長，「可妻也。雖在縲絏之中，非其罪也」。以其子妻之。 [Classical Chinese, trad.]
     子谓公冶长，「可妻也。虽在缧绁之中，非其罪也」。以其子妻之。 [Classical Chinese, simp.]

     From: The Analects of Confucius, c. 475 – 221 BCE

     Zǐ wèi Gōngyě Cháng, “kě qì yě. Suī zài léiyì zhī zhōng, fēi qí zuì yě”. Yǐ qí zǐ qì zhī.

     The Master said of Gongye Chang that he might be wived; although he was put in bonds, he had not been guilty of any crime. Accordingly, he gave him his own daughter to wife.

2. ^† to marry a woman

   • 好色，人之所欲，妻帝之二女，而不足以解憂； [Classical Chinese, trad.]
     好色，人之所欲，妻帝之二女，而不足以解忧； [Classical Chinese, simp.]

     From: Mencius, c. 4^th century BCE

     hǎosè, rén zhī suǒyù, qī dì zhī èrnǚ, ér bùzú yǐ jiěyōu;

     To lust after feminine beauty is men's desire, and Shun married as wives Emperor Yao's two daughters, yet that was not enough to rid Shun of Shun's sorrow.

(Fifth grade kyōiku kanji)

1. spouse

• Go-on: さい (sai, Jōyō)
• Kan-on: せい (sei)
• Kun: つま (tsuma, 妻, Jōyō)、めあわせる (meawaseru, 妻せる)

From 端 (tsuma, “side, edge”), indicating the person who is at the side of someone: a spouse.^[1] Compare the English expression better half.

This term originally referred to either a male (husband) or female (wife) spouse. In modern usage, this term refers only to a female spouse.^[1]

• 夫 (archaic)

• (Tokyo) つま (Atamadaka – )^[2]
• IPA^(key):

妻(つま) • (tsuma) 

1. (archaic) a spouse
2. (humble, only refers to one's own) a wife (married woman)
   • 1999 February 15 [1983 June 20], Osamu Tezuka, “第８話　未知への挑戦 [Chapter 8: Challenge of the Third Kind]”, in ブラック・ジャック [Black Jack], 8th edition, volume 18 (fiction), Tokyo: Kodansha, →ISBN, page 176:

     先(せん)生(せい)………………私(わたし)の妻(つま)は美(うつく)しいでしょう？

     Sensei……………… watashi no tsuma wa utsukushii deshō?

     Doctor... Do you think my wife is beautiful?

     ああ！すばらしい美(び)人(じん)ですよ！

     Ā! Subarashii bijin desu yo!

     Sure! She’s a gorgeous lady!

• (one’s own wife): 家(か)内(ない) (kanai)
• (someone else's wife): 奥(おく)さん (okusan), 奥様(おくさま) (okusama)
• (spouse in general): 配偶者(はいぐうしゃ) (haigūsha)
• (dialectal, Kansai) 嫁(よめ) (yome)
• (dialectal, Kagoshima) うっかた (ukkata)

By extension from the at the side sense.^[1]

• (Tokyo) つま (Odaka – )^[2]
• IPA^(key):

妻(つま) • (tsuma) 

1. a side dish
2. a tangent, a digression, something to the side of the main thing

From Middle Chinese 妻 (MC tshej|tshejH, “wife”).

• (Tokyo) さい (Atamadaka – )^[2]
• IPA^(key):

妻(さい) • (sai) 

1. my wife
   • Isikawa Takuboku, Romazi Nikki

     Yo wa Sai wo aisiteru; aisiteru kara koso kono Nikki wo yomase taku nai no da.

     I love my Wife; it is precisely because I love her that I do not want her to read this Diary.

• Used chiefly in written texts such as letters.

From Middle Chinese 妻 (MC tshej).

• (SK Standard/Seoul) IPA^(key):
• Phonetic hangul:

Korean Wikisource has texts containing the hanja:

妻

Wikisource

妻 (eumhun 아내 처 (anae cheo))

1. hanja form^? of 처 (“wife”)

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

妻: Hán Nôm readings: thê, thế

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