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鹫 (traditional: 鷲) is a phono-semantic compound: the bird radical 鸟 (鳥) gives the meaning category, and 就 indicates the pronunciation "jiu". It refers to large birds of prey, vultures, condors, and certain eagles, and appears almost exclusively in ornithological names, such as the cinereous vulture, without broader abstract senses. Occasionally it surfaces in foreign place-name transcriptions or Buddhist terms for mountain peaks resembling the bird.
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