幻

The 幺 radical on the left pictures a coiled silk thread — something faint and small. It indexes the character and supplies the 'tenuous, illusory' semantic core: what is too thin to be seen clearly, what slips through one's fingers.

Right side functions as a bare wrapping hook with no inner content — an abstract closing stroke balancing the 幺 on the left. Historically 幻 was the mirror-image of 予 (to give), suggesting reverse-of-giving equals deceiving; the modern silhouette has reduced that flipped form to this residual curl.