烧烤
shāo kǎo · HSK 7
barbecue
🍢🔥 烧 burn + 烤 grill — both carry the 火 fire radical, so it's double-fire barbecue
烧 (shāo) means to burn or roast and 烤 (kǎo) means to grill or bake; stacking the two fire-related verbs gives 烧烤, the food you cook over flame. Note the 火 fire component sitting on the left of 烧 and under 烤.
烧 — fire radical 火 + 尧 (phonetic)
A semantic-phonetic compound: 火 'fire' gives the meaning 'to burn,' while 尧 (yáo) supplies the sound, shifted to shāo. The right side was simplified from 燒. Core sense 'burn' extended to cooking senses like 'roast' and 'braise.'
烤 — fire radical 火 + 考 (kǎo, phonetic)
烤 is a semantic-phonetic compound. The fire radical 火 on the left signals the meaning—cooking with heat, roasting or baking—while 考 on the right supplies the sound kǎo. It is a relatively modern character, popularized in the 20th century to write the everyday verb 'to roast,' as in 烤鸭 (roast duck).