Look alikes that are total opposites. 允 versus 弃

yun3

This is yun3. It means to allow, permit, accede. It’s the picture of a kid trying to suck at his mom’s breast. Probably the kid is down below that’s logical especially since 儿 means kid. 厶 above is probably a remnant of a circle for the head of the woman, but in any case that 厶si  character means private.

Awww… Sweet, no?

qi4

Yun3 looks a hell of a lot like qi4 弃 but it basically means the opposite. This qi4 means to abandon, relinquish, give up. Oh, but wait, did I ever mention? Chinese writing is often like a horror story. This qi4 弃 is a picture of a mom abandoning a baby in the wild where it will almost certainly starve to death or be eaten. Holy fucking shit china wtf.

gong3 below is a picture of two hands clasped, they are raising up the child which is depicted above with 亠tou2 a lid, cover of a pot and厶si1 private. The top part is a standardization from a picture of a woman holding up a baby in a basket she is giving up, giving it up, relinquishing it (to a near certain death btw).  

Earlier hanzi were largely pictographs but where standardized and simplified more often into compounded ideas.  Whatever. 弃qi4 is a picture of a woman abandoning her child to a near certain death. OMFG