伯母さん; 叔母さん
おばさん · obasan · JLPT N5 · noun
aunt
👩 oba (aunt) + san; short a. Long obaasan = grandmother
Two spellings, one sound: 伯母 is a parent's older sister, 叔母 a younger one. 伯 = elder, 叔 = junior, 母 = mother, so each reads as elder-mother or junior-mother. Keep the a short: stretching it to obaasan turns aunt into grandmother.
母 — pictograph of kneeling woman with two breast dots
母 is a pictograph derived from 女 (woman) with two added dots representing breasts, marking a nursing mother. The earliest oracle bone forms show a kneeling figure with prominent dots on the chest. The meaning has stayed remarkably stable, denoting 'mother' and by extension 'female' or 'source/origin'.
母 — pictograph of kneeling woman with two breast dots
母 is a pictograph derived from 女 (woman) with two added dots representing breasts, marking a nursing mother. The earliest oracle bone forms show a kneeling figure with prominent dots on the chest. The meaning has stayed remarkably stable, denoting 'mother' and by extension 'female' or 'source/origin'.