Definitions

cuì fine hair or fur on animals

Etymology

Many fine hairs  forming a pelt

About

The character "毳" is formed by tripling the component "毛" for hair, creating a compound ideograph that originally denoted fine hair or down. Its structure directly reflects this meaning through visual accumulation. Historically, the term referred specifically to animal fur or bird plumage, but its usage expanded to describe any soft, delicate texture, and in certain contexts, it acquired secondary connotations of brittleness or fragility, though its primary association remains with hair-like qualities.

Etymology Hide

Bronze etymology image
Bronze Mid Western Zhou (~900 BC)
Bronze etymology image
Bronze Late Western Zhou (~800 BC)
Seal etymology image
Seal Chu (Warring States: 475-221 BC)
Seal etymology image
Seal Shuowen (~100 AD)
Clerical etymology image
Clerical Eastern Han dynasty (25-220 AD)
Traditional Modern
Simplified Modern