The word "翩翩" is formed by reduplicating the character "翩", which itself is a pictophonetic compound. The character "翩" combines the semantic component "羽" (yǔ), meaning "feather", to convey lightness or flight, with the phonetic component "扁" (biǎn), which indicates pronunciation. Thus, the reduplication creates a disyllabic term that emphasizes a graceful, fluttering motion.