～匹
～ひき · ～hiki · JLPT N5 · noun
animal
🐱🐟 匹 hiki: small critters you could hike off with, one per hand
匹 counts small animals: cats, dogs, fish, insects. The sound shifts with the number: ippiki (1), nihiki (2), sanbiki (3). Big animals take 頭 (tou) instead, and birds take 羽 (wa).
匹 — cliff 厂 + 儿 (legs/person)
匹 originally pictured a folded bolt of cloth, with the strokes representing the fabric draped and tied. From this came the meaning 'a bolt of cloth' as a measure word. It was later extended to count horses and other animals, and to mean 'match' or 'mate', as paired bolts were of equal length.