What are the left and top right part of 叚（暇{ひま}・霞{かすみ}・蝦{えび}…）?


In [RADKFILE](http://nihongo.monash.edu/kradinf.html), the only radical 暇{ひま},
霞{かすみ} and 蝦{えび} share is 又. It doesn't have anything for the two other
distinct parts of 叚.

I haven't seen the parts in other kanji, except that the left one looks a bit
like 尸 with two additional strokes and the top right one looks like the
katakana コ ([which was derived from
己](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0c/Katakana_origine.svg)).

What are they?




As snailplane said, RADKFILE is not a source of information on the history of
kanji components, their hierarchical decompositions, or their original
rationale.

The origin of 叚 is unclear. Its old meaning is "false", "provisional", and 又
is [a pictograph for the right hand, often grasping
something](http://www.chineseetymology.org/CharacterEtymology.aspx?submitButton1=Etymology&characterInput=%E5%8F%88)
(indicating tool use, actions, etc.):

[![又 Oracle Bone
form](https://i.stack.imgur.com/jkETQ.gif)](https://i.stack.imgur.com/jkETQ.gif)
[![又 Seal
form](https://i.stack.imgur.com/JXdWv.gif)](https://i.stack.imgur.com/JXdWv.gif)

You can see in [the early forms of
叚](http://www.chineseetymology.org/CharacterEtymology.aspx?characterInput=%E5%8F%9A)
that コ probably comes from another hand, facing the other way (the kind that
in most kanji resulted in a ヨ shape):

[![叚 Bronze
form](https://i.stack.imgur.com/NWije.gif)](https://i.stack.imgur.com/NWije.gif)

The left side seems like some sort of cover or container with horizontal
markings inside. According to Tōdō's interpretation this could be showing the
act of "hiding" items, related to them being "false". Sears thinks it's "a
hand with a flint knife striping a skin off an animal", but that feels like a
stretch to me; though other people (like Harbaugh) also connect the left part
to an altered "skin" (皮). Shirakawa thinks it's an unpolished jewel cut off
from a mountain, but Shirakawa is insane and basically always wrong. In
summary, there seems to be no consensus.

Since all of 暇蝦霞假瑕葭遐碬豭赮騢 are pronounced カ (with 蝦霞碬赮騢 also sharing ゲ and 假碬豭
ケ), the common presence of 叚 in them is certainly for phonetic reasons.

(All images from Sear's [Chinese Etymology](http://www.chineseetymology.org/)
website.)




As snailplane said, RADKFILE is not a source of information on the history of
kanji components, their hierarchical decompositions, or their original
rationale.

The origin of 叚 is unclear. Its old meaning is "false", "provisional", and 又
is [a pictograph for the right hand, often grasping
something](http://www.chineseetymology.org/CharacterEtymology.aspx?submitButton1=Etymology&characterInput=%E5%8F%88)
(indicating tool use, actions, etc.):

[![又 Oracle Bone
form](https://i.stack.imgur.com/jkETQ.gif)](https://i.stack.imgur.com/jkETQ.gif)
[![又 Seal
form](https://i.stack.imgur.com/JXdWv.gif)](https://i.stack.imgur.com/JXdWv.gif)

You can see in [the early forms of
叚](http://www.chineseetymology.org/CharacterEtymology.aspx?characterInput=%E5%8F%9A)
that コ probably comes from another hand, facing the other way (the kind that
in most kanji resulted in a ヨ shape):

[![叚 Bronze
form](https://i.stack.imgur.com/NWije.gif)](https://i.stack.imgur.com/NWije.gif)

The left side seems like some sort of cover or container with horizontal
markings inside. According to Tōdō's interpretation this could be showing the
act of "hiding" items, related to them being "false". Sears thinks it's "a
hand with a flint knife striping a skin off an animal", but that feels like a
stretch to me; though other people (like Harbaugh) also connect the left part
to an altered "skin" (皮). Shirakawa thinks it's an unpolished jewel cut off
from a mountain, but Shirakawa is insane and basically always wrong. In
summary, there seems to be no consensus.

Since all of 暇蝦霞假瑕葭遐碬豭赮騢 are pronounced カ (with 蝦霞碬赮騢 also sharing ゲ and 假碬豭
ケ), the common presence of 叚 in them is certainly for phonetic reasons.

(All images from Sear's [Chinese Etymology](http://www.chineseetymology.org/)
website.)

