Fin

Type qi in Mandarin pinyin or hire in Japanese; choose 鰭.

Choose 鰭 for traditional Chinese or 鳍 for simplified Chinese. The Japanese reading of 鰭 is ひれ (hi-re, with a lightly breathed h); dictionaries also record はた (ha-ta).

What does 鰭 mean?

It means the fin of a fish or another aquatic animal.

The Kangxi Dictionary, a Chinese character reference completed in 1716, quotes 鰭 in the Book of Rites (禮記) and the Records of the Grand Historian (史記), classic works on ritual and history. The Manyoshu, an eighth-century Japanese poetry anthology, records はた as a word for a fish's fin. In 鰭, 魚 (“fish”) points to the meaning and 耆 supplies the sound.

Japanese uses of ひれ also include decorative carved projections on traditional buildings and heat-dissipating parts on cooling equipment. Dictionaries record a figurative sense for a broad-bodied person, extending to bearing or gravitas.