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Etymology data from Wiktionary via Wiktextract (CC BY-SA 4.0). Chinese character data from the 說文解字, the Taiwan MOE 國語辭典簡編本 (CC BY-ND 3.0 TW) and HSK/TOCFL lists.

Explanations are written by a local model (gemma4) and only published after a verification pass against the cited sources. How it works.

Chinese

哥

gē
older brother; elder brother
  • HSK 1
  • TOCFL 1
  • radical 口
  • 10 strokes

Etymology graph

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  • derived
  • parts
  • meaning component
  • sound component
  • related
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Origin

Stacked form of 可 (OC *kʰaːlʔ), perhaps an open mouth with breath going out while talking or singing. In fact, the original meaning of 哥 and perhaps 可 was "to sing; song".

; “elder brother”

: It is a clipping of 阿哥 (MC 'a ka), a borrowing from Xianbei *aqa (“elder brother”) (Mei, 2015). Compare Proto-Mongolic *aka, whence also Mongolian ᠠᠬ᠎ᠠ (aq-a, “elder brother”). Related to 阿干 (MC 'a kan), which is the definite form of the same Xianbei word (Mei, 2015).

From Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Lineage

  • partChinese可 “can; may; be able to”
    • meaningChinese口 “mouth, especially the lips and internal mouth cavity (Classifier: 把 c)”
    • soundChinese丂 “the appearance of air which is to be released”
      • componentChinese𠃑
      • componentChinese一 “one”
  • borrowedXianbei*aqa “elder brother”

Related: Proto-Mongolic *aka, Mongolian ᠠᠬ᠎ᠠ

Words built on it: 歌, 大哥, 哥哥

Meanings

character
  1. older brother; elder brother
  2. older male relative of the same generation
  3. term of address for a male person of the same age or older
  4. original form of 歌 (gē, “to sing; song”)

Shuowen Jiezi 說文解字

哥：聲也。从二可。古文以爲謌字。

Xu Shen, c. 100 CE — the first analytical dictionary of Chinese characters.

國語辭典 definitions

  1. 稱謂

© Ministry of Education, Taiwan — CC BY-ND 3.0 TW, shown unaltered.

How 哥 was written 字形演變

  1. 哥 in Qin slips script
    Qin slips
    秦系簡牘
    Qin
  2. 哥 in Small seal script
    Small seal
    說文小篆
    Shuowen, c. 100 CE
  3. 哥 in Regular script
    Regular
    楷書
    since c. 200 CE

Historical forms collected by the legacy etymfun dataset; most characters have several attested variants.

Sources

  • Structural decomposition (chaizi) — See upstream
  • Historical glyph forms (zdic.net 字形演变) — Rights unverified
  • HSK / TOCFL word lists — Facts (levels)
  • 教育部《國語辭典簡編本》 (Taiwan MOE) — CC BY-ND 3.0 TW
  • 說文解字 Shuowen Jiezi (Xu Shen, c. 100 CE) — Public domain
  • Written form — n/a
  • Wiktionary (via Wiktextract / kaikki.org) — CC BY-SA 4.0
  • Wiktionary: 哥