差

Ideogrammic compound (later reinterpreted as phono-semantic):

來 (올 래, “barley”) — depicts grain stalks, gives the base shape.

左 (왼 좌, “left hand”) — originally semantic (“hand, action”), but also functions as a phonetic.

Oracle/bronze forms show the action of rubbing grain by hand (“to rub, grind”), the original sense.

Later extended to “difference, discrepancy” and “dispatch.”

To preserve the original “to rub” meaning, a hand radical was later added, producing 搓 (비빌 차).

差異 (차이) — difference, discrepancy

快差 (쾌차) — recovery from illness

差使 (차사) — official messenger, dispatch

參差不齊 (참차부제) — uneven, irregular

誤差 (오차) — error, deviation

Polyphonic in Mandarin:

chā → “difference, to vary” (차이, 差異)

chà → “inferior, lacking” (質量很差, quality is poor)

chāi → “dispatch, send” (差遣, 파견)

cī → “uneven, jagged” (參差不齊)

In Korean, read 차, with extended meanings of “difference,” “recovery,” and “dispatch.”

In Japanese, used in compounds (差別 さべつ discrimination, 差異 さい difference). Also used in math: 和差積商 (sum, difference, product, quotient).

Stroke form: in China the 王 component is often written with one fewer stroke (middle + slant joined), which also matches the Korean 9-stroke standard.

傞 嗟 嵯 搓 槎 溠 瑳 磋 縒 艖 褨 蹉 醝 鎈 髊 䱹 鹺 瘥 嵳 蒫 齹 鮺 𪙉 𪚍