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

HSK 7-9

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.

HSK 7-9

秦汉时北方民族称翟。

Qín-Hàn 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.