鹘 (hú): falcon

Meanings

一只鹘停在崖顶。

Yì zhī hú tíng zài yá dǐng.

A falcon perched on the cliff top.

鹘迅速扑向水禽。

Hú xùnsù pū xiàng shuǐ qín.

The falcon dived swiftly toward the waterfowl.

history

In classical writing 鹘 names a bird of prey, essentially a falcon. Su Shi's 石钟山记 mentions a 鹘 nesting on the mountain.

radical

鸟 niǎo

bird

The bird radical pins the meaning: whatever the reading, 鹘 always names a kind of bird, here a falcon.

phonetic

骨 gǔ

bone

Provides the sound; the reading has drifted from gǔ to hú over time, a common kind of phonetic loosening in older characters.

鹘 hú