鼓舞
gǔwǔ · HSK 7
inspire
🥁 鼓 = drum + 舞 = dance; drum-and-dance means rouse spirits
鼓 is a drum (the character shows a drum on a stand being struck) and 舞 means dance. Beating drums and dancing was how armies and crowds were stirred up, so 鼓舞 came to mean inspire or hearten.
鼓 — 壴 (drum on stand) + 攴 (hand with stick)
鼓 is a pictograph showing a drum mounted on a stand (壴) being struck by a hand holding a stick (攴/支). It originally depicted the act of beating a drum, and the meaning naturally extended from the instrument itself to the verb 'to beat, to rouse, to encourage.'
舞 — dancer with tassels 無 + opposing feet 舛
舞 is a pictograph of a person dancing while holding ox-tail tassels or feathered streamers in both hands; the upper part 無 originally depicted the dancer with ornaments, and 舛 below shows two feet stepping in opposite directions. When 無 was borrowed to mean 'not/none,' 舛 was added to preserve the original 'dance' meaning.