<p>In short, the answer is yes. 女 is a semantic component <em>women</em>.</p>
<p>We haven't found this glyph in oracle bone script or bronze inscriptions; the earliest is in the Small Seal Script. It was originally written as 媆. It's both ideogrammic and phono-semantic. The semantic components are 女、耎, and 耎 gives the sound. 耎 is again both ideogrammic and phono-semantic. The semantic components are 而、大, and 而 gives the sound.</p>
<p>As semantic components, in general, 女 refers to women, 而 refers to beard, and 大 refers to person/human. 耎 means <em>0) with very very long beard</em>. It's extended to mean <em>1) front-end slightly larger than the other end</em> and <em>2) tender</em>. However, meanings 0) and 1) are rarely used. Meaning 2) is also written as 媆, which strengthens the meaning with women, who are characterized as tender.</p>
<p>媆, writing as 女而大 and undergoing some catachresis （訛變）, finally became 嫩.</p>
<p><a href="https://i.sstatic.net/InbJz.png" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><img src="https://i.sstatic.net/InbJz.png" alt="enter image description here" /></a></p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2022-02-13T02:23:58.610Z
2022-02-13T02:23:58.610Z
lilysirius
<p>So I just learned a new vocabulary called 嫩.   An example from a YouTube channel was given as 这块儿牛肉非常嫩 to mean “This piece of beef is very tender”.</p>
<p>As I understand many Chinese characters can come from combining more than one individual character.  So in the 嫩, does the 女 on the left have anything to do with 女 gender at all?</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2022-02-12T22:29:15.657Z
yeah, in the olden times Chinese considered women are soft and tender and men are hard and tough
Tang Ho
CC BY-SA 4.0
2022-02-13T03:26:28.077Z
Be careful when using this word. Though it means tenderness, softness, delicate, it is meant to be used on "things", like your example "beef", and not on humans. Do not say that a female is 嫩 because it has sexual connotations, meaning she is "tender" to the touch.
Wayne Cheah
CC BY-SA 4.0
2022-02-13T03:29:10.650Z
嫩 is used as a code for 'young' or 'inexperience'
Tang Ho
CC BY-SA 4.0
2022-02-13T17:37:12.387Z
@TangHo Wow, good to know!
EmilyJ
CC BY-SA 4.0
2022-02-13T17:38:17.823Z
@WayneCheah, ha ha no, I will not attempt to!
EmilyJ
<vocabulary><history><character-components>
女 in 嫩 : combining characters
# 女 in 嫩 : combining characters

(Asked by: username_0 on 2022-02-12)

So I just learned a new vocabulary called 嫩. An example from a YouTube channel was given as 这块儿牛肉非常嫩 to mean “This piece of beef is very tender”.

As I understand many Chinese characters can come from combining more than one individual character. So in the 嫩, does the 女 on the left have anything to do with 女 gender at all?

**Tags:** vocabulary, history, character-components

> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: yeah, in the olden times Chinese considered women are soft and tender and men are hard and tough  
> **username_2**: Be careful when using this word. Though it means tenderness, softness, delicate, it is meant to be used on "things", like your example "beef", and not on humans. Do not say that a female is 嫩 because it has sexual connotations, meaning she is "tender" to the touch.  
> **username_1**: 嫩 is used as a code for 'young' or 'inexperience'  
> **username_0**: @username_1 Wow, good to know!  
> **username_0**: @username_2, ha ha no, I will not attempt to!  

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## 1 answers

### Answer by username_3 on 2022-02-13. Score: 3 | Accepted answer

In short, the answer is yes. 女 is a semantic component *women*.

We haven't found this glyph in oracle bone script or bronze inscriptions; the earliest is in the Small Seal Script. It was originally written as 媆. It's both ideogrammic and phono-semantic. The semantic components are 女、耎, and 耎 gives the sound. 耎 is again both ideogrammic and phono-semantic. The semantic components are 而、大, and 而 gives the sound.

As semantic components, in general, 女 refers to women, 而 refers to beard, and 大 refers to person/human. 耎 means *0) with very very long beard*. It's extended to mean *1) front-end slightly larger than the other end* and *2) tender*. However, meanings 0) and 1) are rarely used. Meaning 2) is also written as 媆, which strengthens the meaning with women, who are characterized as tender.

媆, writing as 女而大 and undergoing some catachresis （訛變）, finally became 嫩.

[![enter image description here](https://i.sstatic.net/InbJz.png)](https://i.sstatic.net/InbJz.png)


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