Origin

This character combines two parts to express the idea of "female." The right component, a simplified picture of a bird, acts as a classifier that indicates the character relates to animals or birds. The left component, 此, serves as a sound hint suggesting how the character should be pronounced—it contributes the "shi" sound. By pairing a bird classifier with a sound component, ancient scribes created a character that both identifies the category (birds and animals) and provides a pronunciation guide, while the specific meaning of "female" developed through usage and convention.

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