刚好
gānghǎo · HSK 6
just right
🎯 刚 (just/firm) + 好 (good) = just right, exactly good
刚 means just/exactly (also firm, hard); 好 means good. Together: exactly the right amount or timing. Often used like just in time or perfect timing in English.
刚 — knife 刂 + net/ridge 岡 (phonetic)
A semantic-phonetic compound. The knife radical 刂 carries the meaning of something hard or sharp, while 岡 (a mountain ridge) supplies the sound. The original sense was 'hard, firm,' as in a blade's edge, which extended to 'strong, unyielding' and later the adverbial sense 'just now, just barely.'
好 — woman 女 + child 子
好 is an associative compound showing a woman 女 beside a child 子, depicting a mother with her baby. From this image of maternal affection it came to mean 'good, fine, pleasing.' The reading hǎo means 'good'; read hào it means 'to like.'