欺
qī HSK6

cheat, deceive

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

Components

其
其 Sound component
qí its, his, (3p possessive)
欠
欠 Meaning component
qiàn, qian yawn, deficient

Character Evolution

Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Western Han 202 BC-9 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-Sagartkhikʰ(r)ə to deceive, cheat

說文解字

《說文》：“欺，詐欺也。从欠，其聲。”

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)