酷
kù · HSK 6
hip
😎 Sounds like COOL — and it literally means cool and hip as a loanword
The character 酷 originally meant cruel or ruthless, with the radical 酉 (wine jar) hinting at strong liquor. Modern Chinese borrowed it to transliterate English 'cool,' so kù now doubles as slang for stylish and edgy.
酷 — wine radical 酉 + announce 告 (phonetic)
A semantic-phonetic compound: 酉 (wine jar) gives the meaning side, while 告 supplies the sound. It originally meant 'strong wine' or intensely flavored liquor. The sense extended to 'extreme' or 'cruel,' and in modern Mandarin it also borrows the English word 'cool.'