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淑

shū
adjective #23,142

Meanings

  1. 1 virtuous
  2. 2 gentle
  3. 3 kind
  4. 4 lovely (of women)
  5. 5 admirable

Examples

她是一位温柔贤淑的女子。
Tā shì yī wèi wēnróu xián shū de nǚzǐ.
She is a gentle and virtuous woman.
淑女指的是有教养、品德好的女性。
Shūnǚ zhǐ de shì yǒu jiàoyǎng, pǐndé hǎode nǚxìng.
A 'shu nu' refers to a well-bred, virtuous woman.
《诗经》中有'窈窕淑女'的名句。
《 Shījīng 》 zhōng yǒu ' yǎotiǎo shūnǚ ' de míng jù.
The Book of Songs contains the famous line 'the graceful and virtuous young woman'.

Tips

register
淑 is a classical bound form — it does not appear alone in modern speech. It appears in compounds like 淑女 (virtuous woman), 贤淑 (virtuous and gentle), and is commonly used in women's given names (e.g. 淑华, 淑芳). Its Taiwan pronunciation is shú.

Components

radical
氵 shuǐ
water (radical form of 水)
Left-side three-drops water radical. Originally 淑 meant clear, limpid water — the still pool whose surface lets you see straight to the bottom. From that pristine-water sense came the abstract meaning 'pure, virtuous, ladylike,' which is the modern usage in 淑女 (a refined woman) and 贤淑.
phonetic
叔 shū
uncle (here phonetic)
Right side 叔 supplies the sound — exact shū. Originally 叔 depicted a hand picking up beans, later borrowed for the kinship term 'father's younger brother.' Pure phonetic in 淑; same shū phonetic powers 督 (oversee) and 椒 — clustering of chars with the shū/jiāo neighbourhood.

Stroke Order

淑 shū