飞 | fēi

In Mandarin Chinese, 飞 (Pinyin: fēi 🔊) is a word of many meanings. As a verb, it means “to fly”, “to flutter”, or “to evaporate”. It also could be an adjective for “fast”, “unexpected”, “unfounded”, or an adverb “very” or “extremely”.

飞 is a simplified form of the traditional hanzi 飛. If you look carefully, you’ll see that the traditional character contains two 飞 bits, one on top of the other. Uncle Hanzi writes “a flying bird with long neck and big wings” without specifying explicitly whether he refers to 飛 or 飞. I see a long neck (and a long beak) and not-so-big wings in the simplified character.

Some compounds of 飞 include

• 飞 + 天 = 飞天 (fēitiān): to fly in the sky; to travel into space
• 飞 + 星 = 飞星 (fēixīng): meteor; shooting star
• 飞 + 鸟 = 飞鸟 (fēiniǎo): flying bird
• 飞 + 鱼 = 飞鱼 (fēiyú): flying fish
• 飞 + 鼠 = 飞鼠 (fēishǔ): flying squirrel; bat
• 飞 + 虫 = 飞虫 (fēichóng): flying insect

In Japanese, 飛 is an affix that confers the meaning of flight or speed. We’ve already seen 飛 in that famous haiku:

古池や 蛙飛こむ 水の音 芭蕉 Furu ike ya kawazu tobikomu mizu no oto The old pond; A frog jumps in, — The sound of the water. Bashō (Translated by R.H. Blyth)

Here, the frog 蛙 (kawazu) not just enters こむ (komu) the water: it leaps in 飛こむ (tobikomu).

More photos related to flight, calligraphy and sea glass @ Shutterstock.

鸟 | niǎo

In Mandarin Chinese, 鸟 (Pinyin: niǎo 🔊) is a noun for “bird”. You may remember seeing this character as a part of 鸡, “chicken”.

Wiktionary says that this word was

originally pronounced with a /t-/ initial <...> In many dialects, it changed to a /n-/ initial to avoid homophony with the vulgar word 屌 (diǎo, “penis”), which may ultimately have developed from the sense “bird”. Birds/fowl are characteristically associated with Chinese slangs for genitalia...

鸟 is a simplified form of the traditional character 鳥 which, according to Lawrence J. Howell’s Etymological Dictionary of Han/Chinese Characters, “is a depiction of a bird with a long, curved and rising tail”. Historical forms of this character show great diversity, depicting birds in a variety of positions and orientations, but most of them look to the left.

Compounds of 鸟 include

• 水 + 鸟 = 水鸟 (shuǐniǎo): waterfowl
• 白 + 鸟 = 白鸟 (báiniǎo): swan
• 小 + 鸟 = 小鸟 (xiǎoniǎo): small bird; chick
• 蜂 “bee” + 鸟 = 蜂鸟 (fēngniǎo): hummingbird
• 啄 “peck” + 木 + 鸟 = 啄木鸟 (zhuómùniǎo): woodpecker

In Japanese, 鳥 is pronounced tori (🔊). Naturally, birds inhabit many a haiku.

鳥一羽 道づれにして 枯野かな 千那 Tori ichiwa michizure ni shite kareno kana A solitary bird For my companion Upon the withered moor. Senna

水鳥ゃ かたちに影の 腹合せ 眞原 Mizutori ya katachi ni kage no haraawase The breast Of the water-fowl Meets its reflection. Mahara

小鳥來る 音うれしさよ 板びさし 蕪村 Kotori kuru oto ureshisa yo itabisashi The sounds of small birds On the pent-roof, — What a pleasure! Buson (All haiku translated by R.H. Blyth)

More photos related to birds and sea glass @ Shutterstock.

鸡 | jī

In Mandarin Chinese, 鸡 (Pinyin: jī 🔊) is a noun for “chicken” and domestic fowl in general. To be more specific, Chinese uses compounds, for example:

• 公 + 鸡 = 公鸡 (gōngjī): cockerel, rooster
• 母 + 鸡 = 母鸡 (mǔjī): hen
• 小 + 鸡 = 小鸡 (xiǎojī 🔊): chick

The Rooster is one of the twelve-year cycle of animals which appear in the Chinese zodiac and is associated with the earthly branch 酉. The other meanings of 鸡 include “prostitute” and “penis” (why I am not surprised?).

鸡 is a simplified form of the traditional character 雞 which is a phono-semantic compound of phonetic 奚 (xī) and semantic 隹 “short-tailed bird”. Historical forms of this latter character show great diversity, depicting birds with assorted tails and in a variety of positions.

More photos related to chickens, zodiac and sea glass @ Shutterstock.