酷 (kù): cool (loanword from English); s…

Meanings

1 cool (loanword from English); stylish
2 cruel; harsh; ruthless

Characters

酷

kù

cruel; cool (loanword sense)

Examples

HSK 4

这个角色又酷又帅。

Zhège juésè yòu kù yòu shuài.

This character is both cool and handsome.

HSK 7-9

你的发型好酷！

Nǐ de fàxíng hǎo kù!

Your hairstyle is so cool!

HSK 7-9

酷暑难耐。

Kùshǔ nánnài.

The scorching heat is unbearable.

Tips

usage

酷 has two very different meanings: (1) 'cool/stylish' - borrowed from English 'cool,' popular since the 1990s, (2) 'cruel/harsh' - the original meaning, as in 残酷 (cruel) or 酷刑 (torture). Context makes it clear.

usage

酷 sounds like English 'cool' - this isn't a coincidence. It was chosen as the Chinese translation precisely because of the phonetic similarity.

Components

radical

酉 yǒu

wine vessel; 10th earthly branch

Left-side 酉 is the wine-jar radical, depicting a narrow-necked fermentation vessel. It indexes 酷 in the family of fermented-liquid chars: 酒 (wine), 醋 (vinegar), 醉 (drunk), 醒 (sober up). The original meaning of 酷 was 'strong-smelling wine', from which 'intense, harsh, cruel' developed.

phonetic

告 gào

to tell; announce

Right-side 告 supplies the sound (gào → kù, with onset shift through Middle Chinese). Pure phonetic role; the standalone 'tell/announce' meaning doesn't carry. The modern 'cool/stylish' sense of 酷 is a 20th-century English-loan from 'cool' that landed here purely on the kù sound - independent of the original wine-strength etymology.