小姐

小姐

1. Miss (a term of address for a young or unmarried woman)

   王小姐來了。／王小姐来了。  ―  Wáng xiǎojiě lái le.  ―  Miss Wang is here. / Miss Wang is coming.

   帳務由心細的李小姐經手，絕對不會出錯。 [MSC, trad.]
   帐务由心细的李小姐经手，绝对不会出错。 [MSC, simp.]

   Zhàngwù yóu xīnxì de Lǐ xiǎojiě jīngshǒu, juéduì bùhuì chūcuò. [Pinyin]

   The accounting is carefully handled by Miss Li; absolutely no mistakes are made.

2. young lady
3. (chiefly Mainland China, dated or slang) barmaid; prostitute

• In mainland China, 小姐 is less used to mean “young lady” because the meaning “prostitute” took over the original meaning; 女士 (nǚshì) is used instead.
  • One can still use 小姐 as a title (see the usage example).
  • One should not use 小姐 to call a waitress; the neutral word 服務員／服务员 (fúwùyuán) should be used for that instead.
  • The definition may revert somewhat in the distant future (as with 姑娘 (gūniang)).
  • The term is still used in some compound words such as 大小姐 (dàxiǎojiě).

• 女士 (nǚshì, “lady; miss”)
• (young lady): (Hokkien, dated) 娘仔

• 太太 (tàitai, “madame, wife”)
• 夫人 (fūrén, “madame”)
• 先生 (xiānshēng, “mister”)

• “Entry #362”, in 臺灣閩南語常用詞辭典 [Dictionary of Frequently-Used Taiwan Minnan] (overall work in Mandarin and Hokkien), Ministry of Education, R.O.C., 2023.