讲课
jiǎng kè · HSK 6
lecture
🎓📖 讲课 = speak + lesson: delivering the class out loud
讲 means to speak or explain, 课 means lesson or class. Together they capture the active side of teaching — standing up and talking through the material for an audience.
讲 — speech radical 讠 + 井 (well)
A semantic-phonetic compound. The left side 讠 (simplified form of 言, 'speech') gives the meaning, indicating something spoken or explained. The right side 冓 (simplified to 井-like form) originally suggested interlocking structure and provided the sound. Together it means to speak, explain, or tell.
课 — speech radical 讠(言) + fruit/result 果
课 is a semantic-phonetic compound. The left side 讠(言 'speech') gives the meaning, since the original sense involved oral examination or assessment. The right side 果 ('fruit, result') supplies the sound 'guǒ', which shifted to 'kè'. The meaning later broadened from 'test' to 'lesson' or 'class'.