靠谱
kào pǔ · HSK 6
reliable
🤝 靠 = lean on + 谱 = music score/chart; someone you can lean on like a proven score
靠 means to lean on or rely on; 谱 originally a musical score or genealogy chart, by extension something orderly and proven. Together: matches the reliable standard, lives up to expectations. Opposite is 不靠谱 (flaky).
靠 — 告 (gào, phonetic) + 非 (fēi)
A semantic-phonetic compound: 告 supplies the sound (gào → kào) and 非 ('back-to-back') hints at the meaning of leaning. Originally meant 'to lean against' something, then extended to 'rely on, depend on,' and in modern usage also 'reliable' or 'near to.'
谱 — speech radical 言 + 普 (pǔ, universal)
A semantic-phonetic compound. The speech radical 言 signals the meaning domain — words, records, or systematic listings — while 普 supplies the sound pǔ. Originally referring to a register or chronicle, it came to mean a manual, table, or musical score that lays things out systematically.