鼓

The Chinese character 鼓 (gǔ) for "drum" is composed of two parts: the radical ⺮ (bì), which represents a skin or hide, and the phonetic component 古 (gǔ), which represents an old or ancient object. The character 鼓 thus originally meant "a drum made of animal skin."Over time, the meaning of 鼓 expanded to include other types of drums, as well as the act of drumming. The character is also used in a number of figurative expressions, such as 鼓舞 (gǔwǔ), which means "to encourage" or "to inspire," and 鼓掌 (gǔzhǎng), which means "to applaud."The character 鼓 is first attested in oracle bone script, the earliest known form of Chinese writing. The oracle bone script form of 鼓 is very similar to the modern character, and it is clear that the character has retained its basic meaning over time.The character 鼓 is also used in a number of other languages, including Japanese (ko), Korean (go), and Vietnamese (cổ). The character is pronounced differently in each of these languages, but it retains its basic meaning of "drum."