缺额
quē'é

vacancy

缺 quē be short of, lack

Original meaning: damaged object

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

Components

缶
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
夬 Sound component
guài, jué parted
Change in sound

Character Evolution

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
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-SagartkhwetNə-[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)

额 é forehead Simplified

Phonosemantic compound. 页 represents the meaning and 客 represents the sound. Simplified form of 額.

Components

页
页 Meaning component
yè page
客
客 Sound component
kè guest

Sources

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

額 é forehead Traditional

Phonosemantic compound. 頁 represents the meaning and 客 represents the sound.

Components

頁
頁 Meaning component
yè (head), page
客
客 Sound component
kè guest

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-SagartngaekC.ŋˤrak (no pre-Qín exx?)forehead

Sources

Character origin
漢語多功能字庫
Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Baxter-Sagart