𢦔
zāi

disaster, calamity

Archaic variant of 灾. Phonosemantic compound. 才 (cái) represents the sound and 戈 (weapon) represents the meaning, alluding to a war calamity.

Components

才
才 Sound component
cái, cai talent
戈
戈 Meaning component
gē spear

Component uses

Sound (2)

說文解字

傷也。从戈才聲。

Sources

Character origin
漢語多功能字庫
Readings & variants
Unicode