習

Ideogrammic compound (會意 /会意): 羽 (“wings”) + 日 (“sun”) – to learn to fly, to practice flying.

In the current form, 日 (rì, “sun”) has changed to 白 (bái, “white”), so the present form is 羽 (“wings”) + 白 (“white”).

Alternatively, the original form may have been a phono-semantic compound (形聲 /形声, OC *ljub): phonetic 彗 (OC *sɢʷeds, *ɢʷeds, *sɢʷids) + semantic 日 (“sun”).

Two general semantic fields are found in the senses: "to flap the wings; to flutter" and "to practice". They are generally considered to be the same word, with the link being "to repeatedly flap the wings (in order to learn to fly)", a sense attested in Liji.

Area word:

* Proto-Sino-Tibetan *sV-ləp (“to learn”): Tibetan སློབ (slob, “to learn”), སློབས (slobs, “exercise; training”); Mizo tlip (“to repeat; to do again; to perfect”),

* Mon-Khmer: Khmer ធ្លាប់ (thlŏəp, “to become accustomed to; to have the habit of; marker of continuous action in the past”); Proto-Mon *le̤p ("to know how to, be skilled in") > Mon လေပ် (lèp, “to be versed in”).