翟 (dí): a long-tailed pheasant; its tai…

Meanings

1 a long-tailed pheasant; its tail feathers (used in ancient dances)
2 Di (surname; also an old name for northern peoples, variant of 狄)

Characters

翟

dí

a long-tailed pheasant; its tail feathers (used in ancien…

Examples

舞人执翟羽，十六人一列。

Wǔrén zhí dí yǔ, shíliù rén yì liè.

The dancers held pheasant feathers, sixteen in each row.

秦汉时北方民族称翟。

Qínhàn shí běifāng mínzú chēng Dí.

In Qin and Han times the northern peoples were called Di.

Tips

history

Read dí, the original sense is a long-tailed pheasant and its feathers, waved in ancient ritual dances. As a name 翟 was an old word for northern peoples, the same as 狄.

Components

radical

羽 yǔ

feathers

羽 is the feather radical on top. The character first meant a long-tailed pheasant, so the bird's plumes sit above; the surname use borrows that older graph.

semantic

隹 zhuī

short-tailed bird

隹 means 'a bird'. Feathers over a bird together picture the long-tailed pheasant that 翟 originally named, before it became a family name.