傀儡
kuǐ​lěi

puppet

傀 guī, kuǐ, kuài great

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

Components

亻
亻 Meaning component
rén person

亻 is a component form of 人.

鬼
鬼 Sound component
guǐ ghost

Character Evolution

Seal form
Seal Western Han 202 BC-9 AD
Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Old Chinese
Zhengzhangkuːl
kʰuːlʔ

說文解字

偉也。从人鬼聲。《周禮》曰：“大傀異。”

Sources

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

儡 lěi, léi, lèi puppet

Components

亻
亻 Meaning component
rén person

person

畾
畾 Sound component
léi thunder

Character Evolution

Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Old Chinese
Zhengzhangruːl
ruːlʔ
ruːls

說文解字

相敗也。从人畾聲。讀若雷。

Sources

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