标题
biāotí · HSK 3
title
📰 标 = mark/label + 题 = topic; together = the labeled topic = title/headline
标 originally meant the top of a tree, extended to mark or label. 题 means topic or subject. A 标题 is the label on a topic — the headline of an article or the title of a book.
标 — tree 木 + 票 (ticket/phonetic)
Originally written 標, this is a semantic-phonetic compound: 木 (tree) gives the meaning and 票 supplies the sound. It first referred to the tip or top of a tree, then extended to any marker, sign, or label placed at a prominent point. The simplified form 标 keeps the same structure with a reduced phonetic.
题 — page radical 頁 + 是 (phonetic)
题 is a phono-semantic compound. The right side 是 gives the sound (shì→tí), while the left 頁 (simplified 页, 'head/page') carries the meaning, since titles and topics were written at the top of a page. Original sense was 'forehead,' later extended to 'title, topic, problem.'