姨

• 拼音: yí
• 汉字拆解: 姨 = 女 + 夷 (woman radical + 夷 phonetic/semantic — mother's side female relative)

含义

Maternal aunt (mother's sister). Also used as a respectful form of address for women of one's mother's generation.

Specifically refers to the mother's sister (大姨, 小姨 etc.), distinguishing it from 姑 (father's sister) and 婶 (uncle's wife). Also used colloquially for unrelated women of the parents' generation as a polite address (e.g. 王姨). In extended use, 阿姨 refers to a domestic helper or any older woman.

例句

1. 她从小由住在隔壁的大姨照料长大，对姨的感情甚至比对亲生母亲还要亲厚几分。
2. 逢年过节，姨总会特意赶来，带上一大包自己亲手腌制的咸菜和晒干的山货。
3. 那位照顾社区老人的护理姨已经在这里工作了将近二十年，深受居民信赖与爱戴。

用法指南

语境: family, daily life, address forms

语气: warm

正确说法

• 她的二姨是一位退休的中学语文教师，学识渊博，每逢家庭聚会总会给晚辈讲述一段历史典故或吟诵几首古诗，是全家公认的文化担当。(Her second maternal aunt is a retired middle school Chinese language teacher; learned and widely read, she invariably shares a historical anecdote or recites a few classical poems with the younger generation at every family gathering, and is universally acknowledged as the family's cultural custodian.)
• 搬入新社区不久，母亲便与楼上的张姨结成了忘年之交，两人每天清晨相约在公园散步，风雨无阻，情谊日渐深厚。(Not long after moving into the new community, Mother struck up a friendship across the generation gap with Aunt Zhang upstairs; the two meet every morning for a walk in the park without fail, rain or shine, and their friendship grows deeper by the day.)

错误说法

• 我的姨父是我妈的兄弟 — 姨父 is the husband of the mother's sister; the mother's brother is called 舅舅; mixing these up is a basic kinship error in Chinese

起源与历史

姨 = 女 + 夷 (woman + phonetic component — historically indicating a woman from the mother's side, the maternal line)

文化背景

时代: Modern

世代: All ages

社会背景: Universal