缺位 Origin — Chinese Character Wiki

quēwèi

dysfunctional

quē be short of, lack

Original meaning: damaged object

Phonosemantic compound. 缶 represents the meaning and 夬 represents the sound.

Components

缶 Meaning component

fǒu pottery

Change in meaning

缶 hints at the original meaning of 缺, "damaged object", which is no longer the most common meaning of 缺 in modern Mandarin.

夬 Sound component

guài, jué parted

Change in sound

缺 and 夬 don't sound similar in modern Mandarin due to historical phonetic changes. They were more similar in Old Chinese.
缺 *Nə-[k]ʷʰˤet
夬 *[k]ʷˤret-s

Character Evolution

Regular Modern

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Historical Pronunciations

	Middle Chinese	Old Chinese	Gloss
Baxter-Sagart	khwet	Nə-[k]ʷʰˤet	break; defective

說文解字

《說文》：“缺，器破也。从缶，決省聲。”

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)

wèi position

Depicts a person (亻) standing (立) in a specific position.

Components

亻 Iconic component

rén person

亻 is a component form of 人.

立 Sound Iconic component

lì stand

立 also represents the sound.

Change in sound

位 and 立 don't sound similar in modern Mandarin due to historical phonetic changes. They were more similar in Old Chinese.
位 *[ɢ]ʷrəp-s (< *ɢʷəʔ-rəp-s ?)
立 *k.rəp