Origin

The character 姿 combines the radical for "woman" at the bottom with a sound hint component at the top that helps indicate how to pronounce it. The character specifically means the figure or form of a person, particularly a woman's appearance or bearing. Over time, the meaning broadened to refer to any person's shape, posture, or outward form. The sound component doesn't contribute to the meaning but rather signals the approximate pronunciation used in Chinese, which Japanese adopted.

AI-generated (claude-haiku-4-5), not yet reviewed. Formation type (automated guess): Phono-semantic (meaning + sound hint).