殘

Phono-semantic compound:

歹 (bad, death, damaged bones) — semantic component, meanings of injury, destruction

戔 (jiān, meaning “to pare down, to cut down”) — phonetic component, provides sound and semantic reinforcement

Thus the original sense was “to cut down to remnants,” → injure, destroy, leave only remains.

From this, figurative meanings such as cruelty (殘忍) and being left over (殘餘) developed.

잔혹 (殘酷) — cruelty

잔인 (殘忍) — cruel, brutal

잔재 (殘滓) — remnants, vestiges

잔류 (殘留) — remaining

잔여 (殘餘) — leftover

잔정 (殘情) — lingering feelings, sentiment

殘 and its simplified form 残 are extremely common in East Asian legal, military, and moral vocabulary.

The dual meanings “cruelty” and “to remain” historically share the idea of “what remains after damage.”

Variant forms appear in bronze inscriptions but stabilize in Qin–Han clerical script.

The phonetic component 戔 also appears in:

箭 (arrow)

賤 (cheap, lowly)

浅 / 淺 (shallow)

Classical citations:

《左傳》 (Zuo Zhuan)

「殘民以逞。」

“He oppressed and harmed the people to satisfy himself.”

殘 = to injure, to cruelly harm.

《論語》 (The Analects)

「民可使由之，不可使知之，斯民之殘也。」

“To let the people act without letting them understand — this harms (injures) the people.”

《廣雅》 (Guangya)

「殘，餘也。」

“殘 means ‘that which remains’.”

Authoritative classical support for the “remain, leftover” meaning.

《史記》 (Records of the Grand Historian)

「秦兵所過，無不殘破。」

“Wherever the Qin army passed, nothing was left unravaged.”

殘破 = devastated, destroyed.