雀

雀 (Kangxi radical 172, 隹+3, 11 strokes, cangjie input 火人土 (FOG), four-corner 9021₄, composition ⿱小隹)

• 熦 𨫠 㘍 巀

• Kangxi Dictionary: page 1364, character 20
• Dai Kanwa Jiten: character 41954
• Dae Jaweon: page 1868, character 11
• Hanyu Da Zidian (first edition): volume 6, page 4091, character 7
• Unihan data for U+96C0

Historical forms of the character 雀
Shang	Western Zhou	Warring States	Shuowen Jiezi (compiled in Han)
Oracle bone script	Bronze inscriptions	Chu slip and silk script	Small seal script

Ideogrammic compound (會意／会意) : 小 (“small”) + 隹 (“bird”) – a small bird, a sparrow.

In the current form, the upper part looks like 少, but what looks like the bottom stroke of 少 is actually the upper left stroke of 隹, extended.

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

雀

1. sparrow, especially the Eurasian tree sparrow (Passer montanus)

   • 誰謂雀無角，何以穿我屋。 [Pre-Classical Chinese, trad.]
     谁谓雀无角，何以穿我屋。 [Pre-Classical Chinese, simp.]

     From: The Classic of Poetry, c. 11^th – 7^th centuries BCE, translated based on James Legge's version

     Shéi wèi què wú jiǎo, héyǐ chuān wǒ wū. [Pinyin]

     Who can say the sparrow has no horn?
     How else could it bore through my house?

2. small bird
3. (literary) dark red; brownish red
4. (Cantonese, dialectal Hakka) bird (Classifier: 隻／只 c)

   雀竇／雀窦 [Cantonese]  ―  zoek³ dau³ [Jyutping]  ―  bird nest

5. (Cantonese, Jinhua Wu, colloquial) penis (Classifier: 隻／只 c)

   露雀 [Cantonese]  ―  lou⁶ zoek^3-2 [Jyutping]  ―  to expose one's penis

6. a surname