災

Multiple ancient forms and variants:

灾 (宀 + 火): earliest form (seen in oracle bone script), picturing a house (宀) on fire (火), representing “fire disaster.”

𤆎 (扌 + 火) and 烖 (𢦏 + 火): phono-semantic compounds, with 火 (fire) as the semantic and 才 / 𢦏 (재) as the phonetic element.

𡿧 (巛 with a horizontal stroke): depicts obstructed or overflowing water, interpreted as flood or water disaster.

災 (巛 + 火): combines flowing water (巛) with fire (火), symbolizing both flood and fire disasters, covering general calamities.

Thus, 災 evolved from symbols of specific disasters (fire, flood) into a general term for “calamity, misfortune.”

Semantic range:

- natural disasters (fire, flood, famine, earthquake)

- general misfortune, calamity

- metaphorically, sin or wrongdoing as a source of misfortune

화재 (火災) – fire, conflagration

재앙 (災殃) – disaster, calamity

천재지변 (天災地變) – natural disaster

인재 (人災) – man-made disaster

재난 (災難) – calamity, catastrophe