麒
qí

legendary auspicious animal

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

Components

鹿
鹿 Meaning component
lù deer
其
其 Sound component
qí its, his, (3p possessive)

Character Evolution

Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld Chinese
Zhengzhangɡɯ
Unicodeghiə

說文解字

仁獸也。麋身牛尾，一角。从鹿其聲。

Sources

Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Zhengzhang Shangfang
Historical images
Academia Sinica
Etymology
Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)