若 a woman tidying her hair

若 a woman tidying her hair

若 is a pictographic character. The oracle bone script  depicts a woman tidying her hair with both hands, indicating that a woman is meek and obedient.

In the bronze inscription  a  is added to emphasize the meaning of “agreement or positive response”.

When the meaning of “agreement or positive response” for 若 got obsolete, a new character 喏 was invented to express the same meaning.