Learn one Chinese Character a day - 羽

We have learnt enough characters related to 门 | 門, perhaps it is time to move on to characters related to 户. Before that we need to equip us with a few other Chinese characters.

Today we will study 羽. Though it is still quite close to its Oracle Script version -or, could you guess its meaning?

It looks a bit hard. If you saw below picture, you will then appreciate its similarity:

Yes,  is the drawing of opening wings of a bird before it starts to fly.

Before examining its multiple meanings extended from its original representation, let us check its evolution history first: (image taken from http://chinese-linguipedia.org)

Evolution history of 羽

From the original meaning of 羽, it is quite understandable that 羽 has following meanings:

羽 is used to mean wings (of a bird or an insect), for example: 羽翼

and 羽 is quite naturally used to mean birds' hair. for example: 羽毛

Like the hair of a bird which attaches to the body, when we say somebody is a 党羽, he is a member of a party but in subordinate status.

That is all we have for 羽, time to enjoy a Chinese calligraphy with 羽 inside:

霄羽

And the Oracle Script of our next character to learn is, can you try to reason its meaning by yourself?