The story of

朋

péng

Péng was the character for a giant bird. The character was a pictograph of two wings.

The word for "friend" was also pronounced péng, and so the character for the giant bird was borrowed, and given a second meaning of "friend".

朋友

(péng yǒu)

Sometimes this was confusing.

Eventually the evolution began...

Later people decided to add a bird pictograph element to péng when they wanted to represent the giant bird

(鵬)

Today the original character  

(朋)  

carries one meaning: "friend".