低劣
dī​liè

inferior

低 dī low

Phonosemantic compound. 亻 represents the meaning and 氐 represents the sound.

Components

亻
亻 Meaning component
rén person

亻 is a component form of 人.

氐
氐 SoundMeaning component
dī, dǐ, zhī bottom

Character Evolution

Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld Chinese
Zhengzhangtiːl
Unicodedei
dei

說文解字

《說文新附》：“低，下也。从人、氐，氐亦聲。”

Sources

Character origin
漢語多功能字庫
Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Zhengzhang Shangfang
Historical images
Academia Sinica
Etymology
Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)

劣 liè bad

Phonosemantic compound. 少 represents the meaning and 力 represents the sound.

Components

少
少 Meaning component
shǎo, shao, shào few
力
力 Sound component
lì, li power

Character Evolution

Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld Chinese
Zhengzhangrod
Unicodeliuɛt

說文解字

弱也。从力少聲。

Sources

Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Zhengzhang Shangfang
Historical images
Academia Sinica
Etymology
Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)