警告
jǐnggào · HSK 5
warn
⚠️ 警 = alert/警察 (police) + 告 tell; police-tell = warn
警 (jǐng) carries the alert sense seen in 警察 police; 告 (gào) means tell or inform, also in 告诉. Together: an alerting telling — a warning. The 言 speech radical in 警 reinforces the spoken-warning sense.
告 — ox 牛 (top) + mouth 口
Originally a pictograph showing an ox with something on its head, possibly a yoke or sacrificial marker, combined with 口 (mouth) to suggest announcing or reporting. The character came to mean 'to tell' or 'to announce,' as in making a formal declaration. Today it commonly appears in words like 告诉 (to tell) and 报告 (report).