The kanji 偏 (pronounced *hen*) fundamentally conveys the ideas of "偏り" or "leaning," "deviation," "bias," "partiality," or "one-sidedness." It describes something that is not balanced, not in the center, or that favors one side over another. It can also imply a deviation from the norm or a preference for something specific.

・On-yomi (音読み): *hen* (ヘン) ・Kun-yomi (訓読み): *katayoru* (かたよる) - to lean; to be biased.

⚫︎偏見 Translation: prejudice, bias. ⚫︎偏食 Translation: unbalanced diet, eating only certain foods. ⚫︎偏西風 Translation: prevailing westerlies (the winds that blow from west to east).

The kanji 偏 is a 形声文字 (keisei moji), which means it's a character that combines a semantic component (a part indicating meaning) and a phonetic component (a part indicating pronunciation). In this case: ⚫︎ The semantic component is 　人 (nin/hito) meaning "person." ⚫︎ The phonetic component is 扁 (hen) which indicates the sound. The original meaning likely related to the actions of a person, such as leaning to one side. Over time, the meaning expanded to encompass the broader concept of imbalance or deviation.