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Etymology data from Wiktionary via Wiktextract (CC BY-SA 4.0). Chinese character data from the 說文解字, the Taiwan MOE 國語辭典簡編本 (CC BY-ND 3.0 TW) and HSK/TOCFL lists.

Explanations are written by a local model (gemma4) and only published after a verification pass against the cited sources. How it works.

Chinese

飛

fēi
to fly
  • Pictogram
  • HSK 1
  • TOCFL 4
  • radical 飛
  • 9 strokes

Etymology graph

  • inherited
  • borrowed
  • derived
  • parts
  • meaning component
  • sound component
  • related
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Origin

Pictogram (象形): a bird flying upwards.

In its modern form, resembles a tasseled 升 (shēng).

From Proto-Sino-Tibetan *mV-pjər (“to fly”). Cognate to Tibetan འཕུར ('phur) and Garo bila.

This term also greatly resembles to Proto-Mon-Khmer *par (“to fly”), from whence comes Old Mon ပဝ် (pɔ) and Proto-Vietic *pər (“to fly”) (whereas Vietnamese bay).

Related to Old Chinese 翂 (*pɯn, “appearance of birds flying slowly”) and Old Chinese 奮 (*pɯns, “spread wings and fly”).

; (ticket):

; (femto-)

From Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Lineage

  • partChinese飞
  • inheritedProto-Sino-Tibetan*mV-pjər “to fly”
  • partChinese升 “sheng, equal to 10 合 (gě)”

Related: Tibetan འཕུར, Garo bila, Proto-Mon-Khmer *par, Old Mon ပဝ်, Proto-Vietic *pər, Vietnamese bay, Old Chinese 翂, Old Chinese 奮

Words built on it: 飛機

Meanings

character
  1. to fly
  2. to fly (on an aircraft)
  3. to fly (on an aircraft) to
  4. to float in the sky; to hover
  5. to volatilize
  6. fast; rapid; swiftly

Shuowen Jiezi 說文解字

飛：鳥翥也。象形。凡飛之屬皆从飛。

Xu Shen, c. 100 CE — the first analytical dictionary of Chinese characters.

國語辭典 definitions

  1. 鳥類、昆蟲類或航空器騰行於空中。 例：飛行、振翅高飛　◎
  2. 飄揚。 例：雪花紛飛、飛沙走石、春城無處不飛花
  3. 疾速的。 例：飛瀑、飛奔
  4. 沒有根據的。 例：飛語
  5. 意料之外的。 例：飛來橫禍

© Ministry of Education, Taiwan — CC BY-ND 3.0 TW, shown unaltered.

How 飛 was written 字形演變

  1. 飛 in Chu slips & silk script
    Chu slips & silk
    楚系簡帛
    Warring States
  2. 飛 in Small seal script
    Small seal
    說文小篆
    Shuowen, c. 100 CE
  3. 飛 in Regular script
    Regular
    楷書
    since c. 200 CE

Historical forms collected by the legacy etymfun dataset; most characters have several attested variants.

Sources

  • Structural decomposition (chaizi) — See upstream
  • Historical glyph forms (zdic.net 字形演变) — Rights unverified
  • HSK / TOCFL word lists — Facts (levels)
  • 教育部《國語辭典簡編本》 (Taiwan MOE) — CC BY-ND 3.0 TW
  • 說文解字 Shuowen Jiezi (Xu Shen, c. 100 CE) — Public domain
  • Written form — n/a
  • Wiktionary (via Wiktextract / kaikki.org) — CC BY-SA 4.0
  • Wiktionary: 飛