高 from HSK Level 1 Vocabulary List

The Chinese character 高 (gāo) for "high" is composed of two parts: the radical 阜 (fù), which means "mound" or "hill", and the phonetic component 皐 (gāo), which is a phonetic loan character. The radical 阜 indicates that the character is related to the concept of height or elevation, while the phonetic component 皐 provides the pronunciation.The original form of the character 高 was 髙, which was a pictograph of a person standing on a mound or hill. Over time, the character evolved and simplified into its current form, 高.The character 高 has a rich history and has been used in Chinese literature and poetry for centuries. It is often used to describe physical height, but can also be used metaphorically to refer to high status, high quality, or high achievement. For example, the phrase 高山仰止 (gāo shān yǎng zhǐ) means "to look up to someone with great respect", while the phrase 高枕无忧 (gāo zhěn wú yōu) means "to sleep soundly without worries".In addition to its use in Chinese, the character 高 has also been adopted into other languages, such as Japanese (高い, takai) and Korean (높다, nopda).