Definitions
short-tailed bird
Etymology
Pictograph of a bird.
About
隹 originated as a pictograph of a bird with a short tail, distinguishing it from long-tailed bird characters. Now primarily a semantic component, it appears in compound characters for birds and bird-related actions like gathering and flying. Though it once functioned as an independent word for short-tailed birds such as pigeons or doves, its standalone use has faded, and it is now encountered almost exclusively within phono-semantic compounds.
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