课题
kètí · HSK 5
subject
📝 课 = lesson + 题 = topic → lesson topic = task for study
课 means lesson or class; 题 means topic, subject, or question. Together they form lesson-topic, the assigned subject or problem to work on. Common in academic contexts like research subjects (研究课题) or homework tasks.
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'.
题 — page radical 頁 + 是 (phonetic)
题 is a phono-semantic compound. The right side 是 gives the sound (shì→tí), while the left 頁 (simplified 页, 'head/page') carries the meaning, since titles and topics were written at the top of a page. Original sense was 'forehead,' later extended to 'title, topic, problem.'