少奶奶

shàonǎinai

noun #86,879

Measure Word

一位少奶奶 wèi

Meanings

1 young lady of the house
2 wife of the young master in a wealthy household
3 (modern) pampered wife of a rich man's son

Characters

(term of address for an elder female / mistress)

(reduplication, neutral tone)

Examples

嫁过去之后她就是张家的少奶奶了。

Jià guòqù zhīhòu tā jiùshì Zhāng jiā de shàonǎinai le.

Once she married in she became the young mistress of the Zhang household.

她过着十指不沾阳春水的少奶奶生活。

Tā guòzhe shí zhǐ bù zhān yángchūnshuǐ de shàonǎinai shēnghuó.

She lives a pampered young-mistress life — never lifts a finger.

Tips

culture

From traditional household etiquette: 老爷 (lǎoye) = master, 老太太 (lǎotàitai) = lady of the house, 少爷 (shàoye) = young master, 少奶奶 = young master's wife. The Zhang Ailing / Eileen Chang era of Republican-Shanghai fiction is where the term is most evocative. In modern jokes 阔太太 (kuòtàitai) and 阔少奶奶 mock the same archetype.

In Pop Culture

金锁记 Jīnsuǒjì

The Golden Cangue

Eileen Chang's 1943 novella; protagonist Cao Qiqiao starts as a 少奶奶 in a declining Shanghai gentry family. The novella is a canonical depiction of the 少奶奶 role's psychological costs.

Stroke Order

少 shǎo

奶 nǎi