好奇
hàoqí · HSK 3
curious
🐱 好奇 = 好 (fond of) + 奇 (strange) — fond of the strange = curious
The compound literally reads 'liking the unusual.' 好 here takes its 4th-tone reading hào (to be fond of), not the 3rd-tone hǎo (good). 奇 (qí) means strange or rare, so 好奇 is the disposition of being drawn to oddities.
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.'