古汉语中“兒”字用法概说

A Brief Account of the Chinese Character“兒” in Archaic Chinese

“儿”字的基本含义是婴儿、幼童。由此引申,年龄相对小的称“儿”,地位低的也称“儿”。本文讨论了地位低称“儿”的三种情形:其一,古代女子地位低下,故女子自称“儿”,对女性的一些轻蔑之称也以“儿”为语素。其二,奴仆称“儿”,不论年龄大小。其三,对他人的蔑称多以“儿”为语素。主要找出“儿”字义项间的联系,从而解释与“儿”相关的某些词语。

The Chinese character“儿”originally meant “babies”,or“children”and h as by extension come to mean“those”who belonged to lower classes of society. This article deals with three aspects of“儿”referring to the lower class.Firs t,in ancient times,woman called themselves“儿”or were called“儿”because t hey were looked down upon.Secend,servants were called“儿”however old they we re.Third,in order to show contmpt for other,people used to mention them with the word“儿”.This article mainly tells us the differences of“儿”in differe nt situations and it also helps give the correct explanations to those words th at have relationship with the word“儿”.