How are the terms for "male/female" and "man/woman" divided exactly? I know that daughter in Chinese is 女儿, and son is 儿子. A little side-question: Why isn't "son" 男儿?

My main question is this one though: apart from son and daughter stated above, what are the corresponding words (specifically or in common, please make sure to explain this) for these terms? And are there rules worth to be mentioned about their use?


Man;
Woman;
Male;
Female;
It's hard for average Chinese to answer the etymology of the words, I think. Why isn't &quot;son&quot; 男儿? For me, I would say because &quot;男儿&quot; has another meaning in both classic and modern Chinese.

男儿 young man,  vital man.
男儿何不带吴钩，收取关山五十州. By the poet 李贺 in 唐 Dynasty
nán ér hé bù dài wú gōu ,shōu qŭ guān shān wŭ shí zhōu.
As a man, why not I take the sharp swords to retrieve the lost lands?

In classic Chinese,

子 infant, child
儿 teenager, son
女 daughter, female(gender)

In modern chinese(actually, in vernacular Chinese from 宋 dynasty), 子 and 儿 are common suffix words. I believe this is how 女儿 and 儿子 evovle.