practice
English · practice
to practice, to study, habit
- 我们要好好学习。wǒ men yào hǎo hǎo xué xí.We must study hard.
- 习惯成自然。xí guàn chéng zì rán.Habit becomes second nature.
Topology: Top-bottom · Strokes: 3 strokes
Writing Balance Rule: Write the top feather component compactly, and expand the bottom white component slightly wider to balance the whole character vertically.
Simplification Logic: The traditional form (習) depicts feathers flying over white/bright sunlight (羽 over 白). The simplified form (习) retains only the top left hook stroke and the lower horizontal fold of the feather, drastically reducing stroke complexity.
Radical 乙 · Second Radical / Fish Radical (second, hooked stroke)
A little bird practicing how to fly by flapping its feathers again and again.
- ⺃ hook/feather trace
- 丶 dot representing flapping action
Origin: Oracle bone scripts show feathers (羽) over a representation of repetitive action or flight, symbolizing a young bird repeatedly flapping its wings to learn flight.
Semantic Evolution: From the physical action of a bird repeatedly flapping wings (learning to fly), it evolved to mean practicing, reviewing skills, and eventually general habits and customs.
- Ancient texts used it interchangeably with 'soar' or 'practice flight'.
A baby bird with tiny FEATHERS (习) sits in the nest, practicing its flight over and over again until it masters the skill.
xíConfusing the simplified shape 习 with unrelated strokes or writing it with too many strokes from the traditional form 習.
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