歌曲
gēqǔ · HSK 5
song
🎵 歌曲 = 歌 (song) + 曲 (tune/melody)
Compound of 歌 gē (song, the sung part) and 曲 qǔ (tune, melody, or musical piece). Together they cover the full sense of a song as both lyrics and melody — any sung musical work.
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'.
曲 — pictograph of a bent carpenter's tool or curved object
曲 is a pictograph showing a bent or curved shape, originally depicting a carpenter's measuring tool or a curved frame. From this concrete image of bending came the abstract senses of 'crooked,' 'wrong,' and 'tune/melody' (since songs follow winding contours). The reading qū carries the bending senses, while qǔ means 'song.'