Archaic familiar term used by men to address a wife, lover, or close female friend. Not used in modern Japanese outside historical or poetic contexts.
An old poem says, 'The rain on the night when my love cannot sleep.'
my love; my dear; darling
Archaic kanji spelling; 吾 is an old first-person pronoun and 妹 here means a beloved woman.
Variant archaic spelling using 我 for the first-person element.
An Old Japanese contraction of 我が妹, “my beloved woman,” with 我 “I; my,” the possessive particle が, and 妹 “beloved woman.”