夫子 (fūzǐ): Master (old respectful address…

Meanings

1 Master (old respectful address for a teacher or scholar)
2 pedant (sarcastic, esp. 老夫子)
3 (archaic) my husband

Characters

夫

Examples

学生们恭敬地称他为夫子。

Xuéshēng men gōngjìng de chēng tā wéi fūzǐ.

The students respectfully addressed him as Master.

他满口之乎者也，真是个老夫子。

Tā mǎn kǒu zhī hū zhě yě, zhēn shì gè lǎo fūzǐ.

He's full of classical particles — what a stuffy old pedant.

Tips

culture

Classically, 夫子 was the highest respectful address for a learned man — most famously 孔夫子 (Kǒng Fūzǐ, Master Kong = Confucius), from which Western 'Confucius' is Latinized. By extension 孟夫子 = Mencius, 朱夫子 = Zhu Xi. Hong Kong's beloved comic 《老夫子》 (Old Master Q) keeps the term in pop-culture circulation today.

register

In modern speech 夫子 alone is archaic. 老夫子 (lǎo fūzǐ) is used jokingly for someone bookish and out-of-touch. Also note: 大夫 reads dàifu (doctor), not fūzǐ — different word.