Character: 差
Modern (Beijing) reading: chā
Preclassic Old Chinese: shrāj
Classic Old Chinese: shrāj
Western Han Chinese: ṣhāj
Eastern Han Chinese: ṣhǟ
Early Postclassic Chinese: ṣhạ̄
Middle Postclassic Chinese: ṣhạ̄
Late Postclassic Chinese: ṣhạ̄
Middle Chinese: c̣hạ
English meaning : divergence, difference, distinction
Russian meaning[s]: 1) ошибаться; ошибка; 2) разница; различаться; [chà] недоставать; уступать, быть хуже; плохой; [chāi] 1) командировать, дать поручение; 2) поручение; 3) посланец; курьер; 4) заключенный, преступник; [cī] 1) беспорядочный; неровный; 2) разница; 3) порядок; ранг; [cuō] см. 蹉
Shuowen gloss: 貣也.左不相值也.從左傘.
Comments: The character is also read as MC c̣hạ̈j (FQ 楚皆), Mand. chāi 'to choose, select' - although this is most probably a MC dialectal variant of the same word ('choose' = 'make a disinction between').
Another reading of the character, also attested very early, is OC shraj, MC c̣he (FQ 楚宜), Pek. cī, Viet. si 'be graduated, of different length', normally in synonymous compounds: 參差 *shrǝm-shraj, 差池 *shraj-Łaj. Viet. also has a reading sái 'be dislocated; opposed' (pointing to an unattested MC variant c̣hạ̈̀ ?). A later attested reading is *chāj (*shāj), MC châ, mod. cuo 1 to rub = 磋 *chāj to file, polish q.v.
Radical: 48
Four-angle index: 94
Karlgren code: 0005 f-g
Vietnamese reading: sai
Shijing occurrences: 1.2, 28.1
