凯歌
kǎi gē · HSK 7
paean
🎶🏆 凯 triumph + 歌 song = a victory song
凯 means triumph or victory (the 凯 in 凯旋, returning in triumph) and 歌 means song. Stack them and you get a triumphal hymn — the paean sung after a battle is won.
歌 — 哥 (phonetic 'gē') + 欠 (open mouth)
A semantic-phonetic compound. The right side 欠 depicts a person with an open mouth, supplying the meaning of singing or vocalizing. The left side 哥 gives the sound 'gē'. Together they form the verb and noun for 'song' or 'to sing'.