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.
