Origin

The character 羽 is a picture of a bird's wing or feather. The two strokes on the left represent one feather, and the two on the right represent another, arranged to show how feathers overlap and spread out when a bird extends its wing. This visual origin makes sense for why the character means "feathers" and came to be used as a counter for birds and other small animals—you're literally looking at a simplified drawing of what makes birds recognizable.

AI-generated (claude-haiku-4-5), not yet reviewed. Formation type (automated guess): Pictographic or simple.