This piece of jade has a small blemish, but it is still precious overall.
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memory
瑕 contains the jade radical 王 (王字旁), reminding us it originally referred to flaws in jade. Common idioms: 瑕疵 (flaw/defect), 无瑕 (flawless), 白璧微瑕 (a minor blemish on an otherwise perfect thing).
Left 王 is the jade radical - three horizontal stones threaded on a vertical string, the left-side form of 玉. Indexes 瑕 in the jade family with 珠 pearl, 玛 agate, 璧 jade disc. A 瑕 is specifically a flaw in jade, later generalised to any blemish.
Right side 叚 supplies the sound, drifting from jiǎ to xiá. 叚 is the older form behind modern 假 (false, borrowed), so it carries a faint hint of "not quite right" - fitting for a flaw. Same phonetic powers 假, 暇 leisure, 霞 sunset glow, 虾 shrimp.
