羽 (yǔ): feather; plume

Meanings

1 feather; plume
2 wing

Examples

羽毛很轻。

Yǔmáo hěn qīng.

Feathers are very light.

她喜欢打羽毛球。

Tā xǐhuan dǎ yǔmáoqiú.

She likes to play badminton.

Tips

usage

羽毛球 (badminton) literally means 'feather ball'.

memory

Also a radical (羽) appearing in characters like 翅 (wing), 翻 (to flip).

Components

pictograph

羽 yǔ

feathers

Pictograph of a pair of feathers, each drawn as a vertical shaft with two slanted barbs. The oracle-bone form was even clearer — two side-by-side feather quills, the symmetrical halves of a bird's wing. Not decomposed into the modern look-alike 习习 sub-pieces, because the picture is a single unified image of plumage. 羽 is itself the Kangxi radical for everything feathered (翅 wing, 翔 soar, 翠 kingfisher-blue, 翻 turn over).

Radical

Feather Kangxi #124

Modest productivity, very visual. Tags characters about wings, feathers, and the flying / flipping actions of birds: 翅 (wing), 翔 (soar), 翻 (to flip / translate), 翘 (to lift up), 翼 (wings), 翰 (writing brush, originally a long pheasant feather). The shape pictures two long pinion feathers side by side.