鸡
jī · HSK 2
chicken
🐔 鸡 = 又 (hand) + 鸟 (bird); the chicken you grab — sounds like 'jee'
Simplified form 鸡 pairs 又 (a hand) with 鸟 (bird) — the bird humans keep and handle. The traditional 雞 uses 奚 for sound plus 隹 (short-tailed bird). Meaning covers chicken, rooster, hen, and giblets.
鸡 — 又 (hand) + 鸟 (bird), simplified from 雞
Originally written 雞, a phono-semantic compound: 鳥 'bird' gives the meaning, while 奚 supplied the sound. The simplified form 鸡 replaces 奚 with 又 (a hand) as a sign component and uses the simplified bird radical 鸟. The character has always meant 'chicken'.