sheng nu

9.9

An educated woman in China who is unmarried in her late twenties or older

noun

Slur

: sheng nu

Many people in her family worry that she is a sheng nu because she is still single at thirty.

Examples

Cultural attitudes toward sheng nu women are changing, with more emphasis on their independence and achievements.
In modern China, being a sheng nu is increasingly seen as a personal choice rather than a social issue.
Among them, he was treated quite well, even marrying A Sheng Nu woman and having a child with her.

Synonyms

unmarried woman

vssheng nu

9 1.0

A woman who is not married

is a culturally specific label for educated women past their late twenties

Antonyms

wife

∞ 1.0

A married woman who is someone's partner

Surface Forms

sheng nu singular

sheng nus plural

Morphology

sheng + nu

If a learner knows the Chinese morphemes 'sheng' (remaining/leftover) and 'nu' (woman), they can reconstruct the basic sense 'leftover woman' and thus infer an unmarried woman past the culturally expected marrying age. However, the term carries culture-specific nuance (the focus on being educated, the late-twenties age threshold, and social stigma) that is not fully predictable from the literal parts, and the constituents are language-specific rather than standard English words.

Etymology

Sheng nu comes from the Chinese words sheng meaning 'leftover' and nu meaning 'woman'. One popular image is of a woman still single after the expected marriage age being compared to things left on a shelf, so today it is used for an educated woman who is 'unmarried' in her 'late twenties' or older.