隔开
gé kāi · HSK 4
to separate
🚧 隔 (separate) + 开 (open apart) = to separate / set apart
隔 carries the sense of partition or barrier; 开 means to open or spread apart. Together 隔开 literally reads as partition-apart, i.e. to keep two things separated by a gap or divider.
隔 — 阜 (mound 阝) + 鬲 (cauldron, phonetic)
A semantic-phonetic compound. The left element 阝 (mound/hill) suggests a barrier or separation, while 鬲 (an ancient three-legged cauldron) supplies the sound. The original sense of being blocked off by terrain extended to today's meanings of 'separate,' 'partition,' or 'at an interval.'
开 — two hands 廾 + door 门 (open gate)
Originally written 開, showing two hands (廾) lifting the bar (一) off a gate (門) to open it. The simplified form 开 keeps the two-hands element and drops the gate. Core meaning 'to open' extended to 'start, operate, bloom'.