乸

乸 (Kangxi radical 5, 乙+7, 8 strokes, cangjie input 心木田卜戈 (PDWYI), four-corner 4771₅, composition ⿺也母)

• Kangxi Dictionary: not present, would follow page 84, character 20
• Hanyu Da Zidian (first edition): volume 4, page 2382, character 4
• Unihan data for U+4E78

Probably a dialectal form of 女 (OC *naʔ, “woman; female”) (Schuessler, 2007).

Alternatively, Li (1990) proposed that this may be a Tai substrate loan, related to Zhuang nax (“younger maternal uncle or aunt”), Thai น้า (náa) (which go back to Proto-Tai *naːꟲ (“mother's younger sibling”)).

乸

1. (Cantonese) female animal

   豬乸／猪乸 [Cantonese]  ―  zyu¹ naa² [Jyutping]  ―  sow

   呢隻係公定係乸嚟㗎？ [Cantonese, trad.]
   呢只系公定系乸嚟㗎？ [Cantonese, simp.]

   nei¹ zek³ hai⁶ gung¹ ding⁶ hai⁶ naa² lai⁴ gaa³? [Jyutping]

   Is this male or female?

2. (Cantonese, often derogatory) mother
3. (Cantonese, often derogatory) wife (Classifier: 隻／只 c)
4. (Cantonese) sissy; feminine; unmanly

   乸型 [Cantonese]  ―  naa² jing⁴ [Jyutping]  ―  sissy

5. (Cantonese, figuratively, of instruments, tools, or connectors) female
6. (Cantonese) Suffix for certain animals, without any gendered meaning.

   蛤乸 [Cantonese]  ―  gaap³ naa² [Jyutping]  ―  (big) frog

   蜞乸 [Cantonese]  ―  kei⁴ naa² [Jyutping]  ―  leech

   蝨乸／虱乸 [Cantonese]  ―  sat¹ naa² [Jyutping]  ―  louse

7. (Cantonese, minced oath, vulgar) euphemistic form of 撚 (lan²): freaking

   黐乸線／黐乸线 [Cantonese]  ―  ci¹ naa² sin³ [Jyutping]  ―  freaking crazy