羽根

はね · hane · JLPT N3 · noun

feather

羽根 — feather

🪶 羽根 = feather 羽 + root 根: a feather with its quill root

羽 is the feather/wing kanji, drawn as two feathers side by side. 根 means root, here meaning the quill end that sits in the bird's skin. Hane also means wing, and the same word is used for a shuttlecock and fan blades.

根 — tree radical 木 + 艮 (phonetic)
根 is a semantic-phonetic compound. The left side 木 ('tree') gives the meaning, since the character originally referred to the roots of a tree. The right side 艮 supplies the sound. From 'tree root' it extended to mean 'root, base, foundation' in general.

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