翘
qiáo , qiào · HSK 7
outstanding
🪶 右半 羽 = feathers; the right side carries feathers, like a bird sticking its tail up
The 羽 (feather) component on the right drives the sense of something rising on one end, the way a bird cocks its tail feathers upward. Two readings: qiáo for to raise or stick up, qiào for to warp or tip up on one end.
翘 — feather 羽 + phonetic 堯 (yáo)
翘 is a phono-semantic compound. The 羽 'feather' radical gives the meaning, since the original sense was a long tail feather sticking up from a bird. The component 堯 supplies the sound. From 'raised feather' the meaning extended to 'lift up, stick up, protrude,' as in 翘起 'to raise/tilt up.'