鹠 (liú): owl

Meanings

1 owl

Characters

鹠

liú

owl (in 鸺鹠)

Examples

HSK 7-9

鸺鹠的“鹠”单用很少见。

Xiūliú de " liú " dān yòng hěn shǎojiàn.

The character 鹠 in 鸺鹠 is rarely used alone.

HSK 7-9

古籍中偶见鹠字。

Gǔjí zhōng ǒu jiàn liú zì.

The character 鹠 occasionally appears in classical texts.

Tips

usage

Almost exclusively seen in the bound compound 鸺鹠, referring to small owls such as the collared owlet. Standalone use is virtually archaic.

Components

radical

鸟 niǎo

bird

Right bird radical - the simplified form of 鳥, anchoring 鹠 in the bird family with 鸺 (its companion in 鸺鹠), 鸮 (the related owl-name 鸱鸮), 鸡, 鸭, 鹅. Supplies the entire meaning: this character names one half of the literary word for a small owl.

phonetic

留 liú

to stay; remain (here phonetic)

Left 留 supplies the sound - liú matches the parent reading with no drift. The 'staying' meaning has no role in this bird-name; the phonetic was chosen purely for its reading. 鹠 only ever appears in 鸺鹠, the classical name for a small owl, so 留 functions as a pure sound-marker.