Definitions
(noun)
elder brother
Etymology
Duplicate of 可, which has a similar sound. The current meaning is a phonetic loan.
About
哥 consists of two 可 (kě) components stacked vertically, forming an ideogrammatic compound that originally depicted a prolonged or repeated sound. It was the primary character for "singing" in early texts. Later, the new character 歌 was created by adding the radical 欠 (to yawn) to specifically denote the action of singing, taking over that semantic role. Consequently, 哥 was phonetically borrowed to represent a different word: the colloquial term for "older brother", a word of Xianbei origin that eventually replaced earlier indigenous terms for an elder brother.
Etymology Hide
Example Sentences Hide
他是我的哥哥。
哥哥喜欢看电影。
我哥哥今天去学校。
大哥从北京回来了。
哥哥经常帮助我学习。
我哥哥和他的朋友一起去旅行。
大哥在跨国公司担任高级经理。
虽然哥哥很忙，但他还是抽时间陪我。