fá
lack
Line over 之 (foot), similar to how 正 (straight; correct) is a line over 止 (foot). Possibly represents the opposite of 正, since the top line in 乏 is written in the opposite direction as the top line in 正.
Evolution

Bronze script
Late Warring States (~250 BC)
Seal script
Shuowen (~100 AD)
Clerical script
Eastern Han dynasty (25-220 AD)Regular script
ModernDefinitions
Most common words with 乏
Freq. | Word | Meaning |
---|---|---|
to lack | ||
tedious | ||
there is no lack of | ||
weak | ||
to be deficient in sth |
Component uses
Unknown component in 1 character (0 verified)
Historical pronunciation
Old Chinese | Middle Chinese | Pinyin | Gloss |
*[b](r)[o]p | bjop | fá | lack (v.) |
Statistics
HSK level 5
Appears in 10.9242% of movies
2012th most common character in movies
1399th most common character in books
Miscellaneous
Strokes | 4 |
Unicode | U+4E4F |
Shuowen | “乏,《春秋傳》曰:‘反正為乏。’” |
Sources
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