About
The character for "duck", which appears as "鸭" in its simplified form, originates from the traditional form "鴨", a phono-semantic compound structured with the semantic component "鳥" (niǎo, meaning bird) on the right, categorizing the creature, and the component "甲" (jiǎ) on the left, which historically served to suggest its pronunciation. Over centuries, the character's core meaning referring to the waterfowl has remained constant, demonstrating a stable semantic application. The primary structural evolution involved the simplification of the semantic component from "鳥" to "鸟", a common graphical streamlining of the complex "bird" radical, while the phonetic element was changed from "甲" to "甲" in simplified, though in practice the left component in "鸭" is a slightly altered form. This modification streamlined the character's composition without altering its fundamental lexical function or its phonetic hint, which, while no longer precisely matching modern pronunciation, still maintains a historical connection.
Etymology Hide
Example Sentences Hide
池塘里有几只鸭。
妈妈买了一只烤鸭。
小鸭子在水里游来游去。
我喜欢吃北京烤鸭。
鸭蛋比鸡蛋大一些。
这个故事里的丑小鸭很勇敢。
这件羽绒服用的是鸭绒。
那只黄茸茸的小鸭很快学会了游泳。