Origin

The character 欺 combines two parts: on the left, 其 provides a sound hint suggesting how to pronounce the character, while on the right, 欠 is a classifying radical meaning "lack" or "deficiency." Together they create the idea of someone who is deficient in truthfulness — in other words, someone who deceives or cheats. The radical 欠 appears in other characters related to lacking or missing something, so it serves as a semantic indicator that this character belongs to that family of meanings.