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字源zìyuánEtymology & Structure
字源洞见 zìyuán dòngjiàn · Etymological Insight
飞 is a pictograph of a bird in the act of flapping its wings. There is no semantic-plus-phonetic split here: the whole glyph is one image, a single bird drawn at the moment its wings beat down and its body lifts. The first stroke, a rising sweep, is the line of the bird's neck and back tilting upward; the curved hooks below are the wings and the trailing tail feathers thrown out behind. The verified decomposition treats the form as a single intersecting unit, not as A plus B, because nothing in it is borrowed for sound.
The traditional form 飛 makes the picture fuller: it doubles the wing element and adds the body in the center, so the eye reads two wings spread on either side of a rising trunk. The Shuowen Jiezi places 飛 among its own radical and glosses it as a bird beating its wings and rising into the air. Simplification kept only the most economical trace of that image, the three strokes of 飞, which is why the modern character can feel abstract until you set it beside its ancestor and watch the wings reappear.
From the concrete sense of a bird leaving the ground, 飞 extended outward along two clear lines. One is height and the air: anything airborne flies, so the same character covers insects, kites, planes, and dust lifted by wind. The other is speed: because flight is the fastest motion an early observer could name, 飞 became an intensifier of swiftness, attached to running, growing, and rising prices alike. The bird is still inside every one of these uses.
飞行fēixíngFlight & Machines
飞机fēijīairplane, aircraft
N 名词 míngcí
飞 (to fly) plus 机 (machine): the flying machine. This is the everyday word for any fixed-wing aircraft, from a jetliner to a small propeller plane.
起 (to rise) plus 飞 (to fly): to rise into flight. Used literally of aircraft leaving the runway and figuratively of an economy or career that is about to surge.
辨析 biànxī · 起飞 vs. 降落 起飞 is leaving the ground; its opposite 降落 (jiàngluò) is touching back down.
飞行fēixíngto fly; flight, aviation
V/N 动名词 dòngmíngcí
飞 (to fly) plus 行 (to move, to travel): movement through the air. More formal and technical than plain 飞, this is the word for piloting, air travel, and aviation as a field. 飞行员 (fēixíngyuán) is a pilot.
这次飞行很平稳。
Zhè cì fēixíng hěn píngwěn.
This flight was very smooth.
他是一名飞行员。
Tā shì yì míng fēixíngyuán.
He is a pilot.
飞鸟fēiniǎoa bird in flight, flying bird
N 名词 míngcí
飞 (flying) plus 鸟 (bird): a bird on the wing. The word keeps the character close to its pictographic root, naming the very creature the glyph was drawn from.
天上有几只飞鸟。
Tiānshàng yǒu jǐ zhī fēiniǎo.
There are a few birds flying in the sky.
飞快fēikuàiFlying as Speed
Because flight is the fastest motion in the old vocabulary, 飞 detached from birds and became a way to say very fast. Placed in front of a quality or a verb, it adds the sense of moving at flying speed: 飞快 (flying-fast), 飞跑 (to run flat out), 飞涨 (prices shooting up). The bird is gone but its velocity remains.
飞快fēikuàivery fast, at flying speed
Adj 形容词 xíngróngcí
飞 (flying) plus 快 (fast): as fast as flight. A vivid adverb-adjective for anything that moves or passes with startling speed, from running feet to the passing of time.
飞 (flying) plus 涨 (to rise, of water or prices): prices climbing as if in flight. The standard word for a steep, fast jump in cost.
最近房价飞涨。
Zuìjìn fángjià fēizhǎng.
Housing prices have soared lately.
成语chéngyǔIdioms & Set Phrases
龙飞凤舞lóng fēi fèng wǔdragons flying, phoenixes dancing: bold, flowing calligraphyThe classic praise for sweeping cursive script, where the brushstrokes seem to move like soaring dragons. Said admiringly of vigorous handwriting, and ironically of writing too wild to read.
不翼而飞bù yì ér fēito fly off without wings: to vanish suddenlyUsed of objects that disappear inexplicably, as if something with no wings had taken to the air. Also of news that spreads everywhere overnight.
飞黄腾达fēi huáng téng dáFeihuang gallops upward: to rise rapidly in rank飞黄 (Fēihuáng) is a legendary divine steed; the phrase pictures a career rising as if riding it skyward. The standard idiom for a meteoric rise in office or fortune.
突飞猛进tū fēi měng jìna sudden flight, a fierce advance: rapid progressA common, positive idiom for swift improvement in skill, technology, or the economy, the kind of leap that seems to happen all at once.
记忆法 jìyìfǎ · Master Retention Image
Picture a single sparrow lifting off a courtyard wall at dawn. Its body tilts up along one rising line, the first stroke of 飞, and the two hooked strokes below are the wings caught at the bottom of their downbeat, the tail feathers flung out behind. Hold that frame: three strokes, one bird, the instant before it clears the rooftop.
Every compound puts a different cargo on that same bird. Bolt an engine to it and you get 飞机, the flying machine. Let it leave the ground and that is 起飞, the takeoff. Strip away the feathers and keep only the speed, and the bird becomes an intensifier: 飞快 is anything moving as fast as that wingbeat, 飞涨 is a price shooting up the same way. Wherever you meet 飞, look for the bird still hidden in the stroke, and the meaning follows it into the air.
相关xiāngguānRelated
Related entries — pages and vocabulary in the neighbourhood of this one
翔xiángto soar, to glide飞翔fēixiángto soar, to circle in flight降落jiàngluòto land, to descend飞行员fēixíngyuánpilot飞船fēichuánspacecraft, airship飞虫fēichóngflying insect跑pǎoto run迅速xùnsùswift, rapid起飞qǐfēito take off飞跃fēiyuèa leap, a great advance