阴 | yīn

In Mandarin Chinese, 阴 (Pinyin: yīn 🔊) is an adjective meaning “cloudy”, “overcast”, “dark”, “hidden”, “secret”, “insidious”, “negative” etc., or a noun for “the moon”, “shade”, “shadow” or “back”. All these meanings are related to Yin, “a principle in Chinese and related East Asian philosophies associated with dark, cool, female, etc. elements of the natural world”. According to Wikipedia,

Yin is characterized as slow, soft, yielding, diffuse, cold, wet, and passive; and is associated with water, earth, the moon, femininity, and nighttime.

阴 is also a word for human “private parts”, that is, anus and (both female and male) genitals — maybe because they are supposed to be hidden?

阴 is a simplified form of the traditional character 陰, which is a combination of radicals 阝 (itself a simplification of 阜, “hill” or “mound”) and 侌 (which has the same meaning as the whole 陰), thus translated as “dark side of a hill”. The 侌 got simplified to one aspect of Yin, 月 “the moon”.

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β | beta

The Greek letter β (beta) was derived from the ancient Phoenician letter 𐤁 (bet). The word alphabet originates from the Greek ἀλφάβητος (alphabētos), from ἄλφα (“alpha”) + βῆτα (“beta”).

The lower-case letter β has found many uses in maths and sciences:

• in astronomy: the second brightest star in a constellation. For instance, Rigel is designated as β Orionis
• in biochemistry: β-sheet, a type of protein secondary structure
• in biology: β cell, a type of cell found in the pancreatic islets of the pancreas. The primary function of a β cell is to produce insulin.
• in inorganic chemistry: a symbol for certain allotropes, for example β-tetragonal boron, β-germanium, and β-tin
• in mathematics: β(s), the Dirichlet beta function
• in natural product chemistry: a stereodescriptor used in a number of different ways
• in nuclear physics: beta particle, a high-energy electron (β⁻) or positron (β⁺) emitted in the radioactive decay; β-decay is a radioactive process in which an atomic nucleus emits an β-particle
• in organic chemistry: β-carbon, the second carbon atom in a chain when counting from a functional group
• in pharmacology: β₁, β₂ and β₃, subtypes of adrenergic receptors
• in phonetics: voiced bilabial fricative (IPA symbol β)
• in special relativity: a symbol for the speed of an object relative to the speed of light: β = v/c
• in thermodynamics and fluid mechanics: a symbol for compressibility
• in zoology: β animals, which often act as second-in-command to the reigning α-males and/or α-females

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α | alpha

The Greek letter α (alpha) was derived from the ancient Phoenician letter 𐤀 (ʾālep) which, in turn, was derived from 𓃾, the Egyptian hieroglyph of an ox’s head.

The lower-case letter α has found many uses in maths and sciences:

• in astronomy: the brightest star in a constellation. For instance, Betelgeuse is designated as α Orionis
• in biochemistry: α-helix, a type of protein secondary structure
• in inorganic chemistry: a symbol for certain (usually the most common) allotropes, for example α-iron, α-phosphorus, and α-sulphur
• in natural product chemistry: a stereodescriptor used in a number of different ways
• in navigation: a symbol for azimuth
• in neurophysiology: α-waves, a type of brain waves detected by electroencephalography
• in nuclear physics: alpha particle, α or α²⁺, a historical name of doubly ionised helium nuclei (He²⁺) ; α-decay is a radioactive process in which an atomic nucleus emits an α-particle
• in organic chemistry: the α-carbon is the first carbon atom attached to a functional group; α-amino acids are amino acids with an amino group bound directly to the α-carbon
• in pharmacology: α₁ and α₂, subtypes of adrenergic receptors
• in physics: a symbol for angular acceleration
• in physics: the fine-structure constant
• in zoology: α-males and α-females, the highest ranking individuals in a community of social animals

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女 | nǚ

In Mandarin Chinese, 女 (Pinyin: nǚ 🔊) means “woman”, “daughter” or, when applied to people, “female”. A combination with 人 “people”, 女人 (nǚrén 🔊), means “(an adult) woman”, “wife” or “mistress”.

According to Ponte Ryūrui, 女 “is a pictograph of a woman kneeling on the ground, shown with her arms entangled, holding a garment” while Wiktionary says that it is

a woman with breasts kneeling or standing. In modern form turned on left side: enclosed area is remnant of left breast (character’s left, depicted woman’s right), while right breast has disappeared. Graphically cognate to 母 (mǔ, “mother”), which has developed similarly, but also includes dots for nipples and has retained both breasts.

I prefer thinking of 女 as two entangled Greek letters ν (nu) which, incidentally, helps me to remember its pronunciation.

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母 | mǔ

In Mandarin Chinese, 母 (Pinyin: mǔ 🔊) means “mother”, or, when applied to an animal, “female”.

This character has evolved from a pictogram of a woman with rather exaggerated breasts with nipples. The historical forms of 母 show a standing or kneeling female figure. In the modern form, the woman’s chest is rectangular and rotated 90° so the whole affair now looks more like a chest of drawers.

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♀ | Venus

“The mirror of Venus” ♀ is an astrological and astronomical symbol representing the planet Venus.

The planet was named after Venus, the Roman goddess of sex, love, beauty, fertility and prosperity. Her Greek counterpart was Aphrodite. In alchemical tradition, Venus was associated with copper.

In many Romance languages, the word for Friday originates from Latin Veneris dies, i.e. “day of Venus” (divendres, vendredi, venerdì, viernes, vineri); Venus even found her way to Breton and Welsh (Gwener). In Germanic laguages, this day (fredag, Freitag, Friday, vrijdag) became connected with Freyja and/or Frigg, even it is not clear whether they were the same or two different goddesses.

According to Wikipedia, the mediaeval symbol for Venus did not have a horizontal stroke, which was added later to form a Christian cross, while “the idea that the symbol represents the goddess’ hand mirror dates to the 19^th century”. In biology, medicine and genealogy, ♀ symbolises the female sex; in sociology and gender politics, the female gender.

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