承乏
chéng​fá

fill a vacancy

承 chéng bear, carry

Pictograph of hands (廾, 手) carrying a person.

Components

卩
卩 Iconic component
jié person kneeling

Depicts a person being carried.

Change in form
Due to historical stylistic changes, this component is less similar to 卩 than it was in ancient scripts.
手
手 Iconic component
shǒu, shou hand
廾
廾 Iconic component
gǒng two hands
Change in form
Due to historical stylistic changes, this component is less similar to 廾 than it was in ancient scripts.

Character Evolution

Oracle form
Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Early Western Zhou ~1000 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Early Warring States ~400 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Late Warring States ~250 BC
Seal form
Seal Warring States (Chu) 475-221 BC
Seal form
Seal Warring States (Chu) 475-221 BC
Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Western Han 202 BC-9 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Western Han 202 BC-9 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Western Jin 266-316 AD
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-Sagartdzying[m-t]əŋ receive

說文解字

《說文》：“承，奉也，受也。从手，从卪，从。”

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)

乏 fá lack

Original meaning: crooked

Derived from 正, but with the line on top slanted to indicate "crooked (i.e. not straight)". The meaning later shifted to "lack".

Character Evolution

Bronze form
Bronze Late Warring States ~250 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Late Warring States ~250 BC
Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Qin 221-206 BC
Clerical form
Clerical Western Han 202 BC-9 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Western Han 202 BC-9 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Regular Modern

Component uses

Sound (1 of 4 verified)

泛眨砭鴔

Meaning (0 of 2 verified)

贬貶

Unknown (0 of 1 verified)

窆

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-Sagartbjop[b](r)[o]p lack (v.)

說文解字

《說文》：“乏，《春秋傳》曰：‘反正為乏。’”

Sources

Character origin
季旭昇《說文新證》p.121
Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Baxter-Sagart
Historical images
Academia Sinica
Etymology
Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)