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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

歌

gē
song; tune (Classifier: 首 m c mn; 支 m c; 闋／阕 m; 隻／只 c w; 條／条 h mn mn-t; 塊／块 mn)
  • Phono-semantic compound 形聲
  • HSK 1
  • TOCFL 2
  • radical 欠
  • 14 strokes
  • 謌
  • 𬤐

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Origin

Phono-semantic compound (形聲 /形声, OC *kaːl): phonetic 哥 (OC *kaːl) + semantic 欠 (“blow”). Specialized form of 哥 (OC *kaːl, “to sing”).

From Proto-Sino-Tibetan *gaːr ~ *ga (“to dance; to sing; to leap; to stride”). Cognate with Burmese က (ka., “to dance”).

From Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Lineage

  • inheritedProto-Sino-Tibetan*gaːr ~ ga “to dance; to sing; to leap; to stride”
  • soundChinese哥 “older brother; elder brother”
  • meaningChinese欠 “to lack; to be deficient”

Related: Burmese က

Words built on it: 唱歌, 歌手, 歌曲

Meanings

noun
  1. song; tune (Classifier: 首 m c mn; 支 m c; 闋／阕 m; 隻／只 c w; 條／条 h mn mn-t; 塊／块 mn)
verb
  1. to sing; to chant
  2. to praise

Shuowen Jiezi 說文解字

歌：詠也。从欠哥聲。

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

國語辭典 definitions

  1. 唱。按曲調或節拍來發聲。 例：高歌一曲、引吭高歌
  2. 配合曲調演唱詞句的謠樂。 例：歌謠、民歌、詩歌
  3. 頌揚、稱頌。 例：歌功頌德

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

How 歌 was written 字形演變

  1. 歌 in Bronze script
    Bronze
    金文
    Shang–Zhou
  2. 歌 in Chu slips & silk script
    Chu slips & silk
    楚系簡帛
    Warring States
  3. 歌 in Qin slips script
    Qin slips
    秦系簡牘
    Qin
  4. 歌 in Small seal script
    Small seal
    說文小篆
    Shuowen, c. 100 CE
  5. 歌 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

  • 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: 歌