喝彩
hè cǎi · HSK 7
to cheer
👏 喝彩 = 喝 shout + 彩 brilliance/applause = shout praise, to cheer
喝 here means to shout (not drink), and 彩 carries the sense of brilliance or applause. Shouting brilliance at a performer is exactly what cheering and acclaim are.
喝 — mouth radical 口 + 曷 (phonetic)
喝 is a semantic-phonetic compound. The mouth radical 口 signals an action involving the mouth, while 曷 (originally meaning 'why/how') supplies the sound. Early uses meant to shout or call out loudly; the modern sense 'to drink' developed later and is now the dominant meaning in Mandarin.