灯笼
dēng lóng · HSK 7
lantern
🏮 dēng = lamp + lóng = cage — a lamp in a cage
The first character 灯 means lamp or light. The second 笼 means cage or basket. A lantern is literally a light held inside a cage-like frame — lamp-cage.
灯 — fire radical 火 + ding 丁 (phonetic)
灯 is a semantic-phonetic compound: 火 'fire' gives the meaning (lamps once burned oil or flame), while 丁 hints at the sound. It is the simplified form of the traditional 燈, which used 登 as the phonetic. Today it means 'lamp' or 'light'.