fēng

wind

How it’s built

Originally written the same as 鳳 (phoenix) because the two characters sounded the same. Later the bottom part of the character was abbreviated to distinguish the two characters.

凡

sound

(plate); ordinary; commonplace

鳳

iconic

phoenix — Abbreviated remnant of 鳳, originally a pictograph of a mythical bird. Later reanalyzed as 虫 (bug, worm).

Through the ages

Oracle bone script

Seal script

Appears in

Characters that use 風 as a component, most common first.

颼sōua chill breeze 楓fēngmaple tree 瘋fēngcrazy 諷fěngsarcastic 颶jùcyclone 飄piāoto drift

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