noun #6,582

Meanings

  1. 1 slave
  2. 2 servant

Examples

Gǔdài hěnduō rén bèipò dāng nú.
In ancient times, many people were forced to be slaves.
Tā shì yīgè gōngzuò de núlì.
He is a slave to work.

Tips

usage
is rarely used alone in modern Chinese. It appears in compounds like 奴隶 (slave), 奴仆 (servant), and internet slang like 猫奴 (cat slave = devoted cat owner).

Components

radical
woman
Left woman radical — the indexing radical. In oracle-bone times, captured women became domestic servants, hence the radical. Reflects an ancient social reality preserved in script form. The character carries this disturbing etymology even as its meaning generalised to slaves of any gender.
semantic
yòu
right hand; again
Right (hand) — represents a hand seizing or controlling the woman. Woman + grasping-hand = a captured woman compelled to serve, the original concrete image of slavery. One of the script's most direct depictions of historical bondage.

Stroke Order