歪曲
wāi qū · HSK 7
to distort
歪 = not (不) + straight (正) = crooked; 曲 = bent. Crooked + bent = twist the truth
歪 stacks 不 (not) over 正 (straight), so it literally spells out un-straight, i.e. crooked. Add 曲 (bent, also seen in 弯曲). Two words for off-kilter stack up into the sense of bending facts out of true: to distort.
歪 — 不 (not) + 正 (upright)
歪 is a compound ideograph combining 不 'not' on top and 正 'upright/straight' below, literally 'not straight.' It is a relatively late character formed in vernacular Chinese to mean crooked, askew, or slanted. The meaning is transparent from its parts rather than derived from a phonetic component.
曲 — pictograph of a bent carpenter's tool or curved object
曲 is a pictograph showing a bent or curved shape, originally depicting a carpenter's measuring tool or a curved frame. From this concrete image of bending came the abstract senses of 'crooked,' 'wrong,' and 'tune/melody' (since songs follow winding contours). The reading qū carries the bending senses, while qǔ means 'song.'