歉
qiàn HSK6

deficient

Phonosemantic compound. 欠 represents the meaning and 兼 represents the sound.

Components

兼
兼 Sound component
jiān double
欠
欠 Meaning component
qiàn, qian yawn, deficient

Character Evolution

Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Qin 221-206 BC
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-SagartkheamHkʰˤremʔ-s deficient, modest

說文解字

《說文》：“歉，歉食不滿。从欠，兼聲。”

Sources

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