In the old days a marriage required the words of a matchmaker.
Tips
history
妁 is literary and not used alone in modern Chinese; it survives in the set phrase 媒妁 (matchmakers), as in 父母之命，媒妁之言 ('by parents' command and matchmakers' words'). The everyday word is 媒人.
register
Classical and formal only — found in writing about traditional marriage customs, not in modern speech.
