Origin

The character combines a woman (女) on the left with a component suggesting a person of a certain role on the right. The left side indicates this character relates to family relationships involving women, while the right side contributes both sound and meaning to suggest a male family member. Together they form a character for a man who enters a family through marriage—either a bridegroom or a son-in-law. The placement of the woman component as a classifier helps establish that this is specifically about a male figure defined by his relationship to the family unit.