椅 Origin — Chinese Character Wiki

yǐ HSK2

chair

Phonosemantic compound. 木 represents the meaning and 奇 represents the sound.

Components

木 Meaning component

mù tree

奇 Sound component

qí strange

Change in sound

椅 and 奇 don't sound similar in modern Mandarin due to historical phonetic changes. They were more similar in Middle Chinese.
椅 'jeX
奇 kje

Regular Modern

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	Middle Chinese	Old Chinese	Gloss
Baxter-Sagart	'jeX	Cə.q(r)ajʔ	chair

《說文》：“椅，梓也。从木，奇聲。”