娄

婁
Lóu
noun #26,478

Meanings

  1. 1 Lou (a Chinese surname)
  2. 2 one of the 28 lunar mansions (constellation)

Examples

HSK 7-9
Lóu shì yígè bǐjiào shǎojiàn de Zhōngguó xìngshì.
Lou is a relatively rare Chinese surname.
HSK 7-9
Lóu xiù shì Zhōngguó gǔdài tiānwén èrshíbāxiù zhīyī.
The Lou lunar mansion is one of the 28 lunar mansions in ancient Chinese astronomy.

Components

radical
女 nǚ
woman
Bottom woman radical - a stylised drawing of a kneeling figure with crossed arms. Indexes 娄 as a Kangxi-radical-44 character. 娄 itself functions mostly as a surname and as a phonetic in compounds like 楼 building, 数 number, 搂 to hug. The original meaning was an empty, hollow vessel.
semantic
米 mǐ
rice grains (top, here graphic)
Top portion written as 米, the rice-grain glyph - four kernels around a central cross. Modern 娄 stacks 米 on 女; the older traditional 婁 had a more elaborate top piece, simplified by absorbing into the familiar 米 shape. Grain imagery is purely graphic - 娄 carries no rice meaning.

Stroke Order

娄 Lóu