镐 (gǎo): pickaxe; pick (mining/digging t…

Meanings

1 pickaxe; pick (mining/digging tool)
2 (read hào) Hao — name of the Western Zhou capital 镐京 near modern-day Xi'an

Characters

镐

gǎo

pickaxe (also read hào: ancient capital)

Examples

工人用镐刨开冻土。

Gōngrén yòng gǎo páo kāi dòng tǔ.

The worker broke through the frozen soil with a pickaxe.

镐京是西周的都城。

Hào jīng shì Xīzhōu de dū chéng.

Haojing was the capital of the Western Zhou Dynasty.

Tips

mistakes

Two readings, two meanings: gǎo = pickaxe (everyday tool word, often expanded to 镐头 gǎotou); hào = the Zhou-dynasty capital 镐京 Hàojīng. Get them confused at your peril — context usually makes it obvious which is meant.

history

镐京 (Hàojīng), located southwest of present-day Xi'an, was the capital of the Western Zhou Dynasty (c. 1046–771 BCE). It was sacked by the Quanrong people in 771 BCE, forcing the Zhou court east to Luoyang and ending the Western Zhou.

Components

radical

钅 jīn

metal; gold

钅 is the left-side simplified metal radical (金 in standalone form). It marks 镐 as a metal tool — most commonly a pickaxe (鎬), the heavy iron-headed implement for breaking ground. Family includes 锹 (spade), 锤 (hammer), 锯 (saw); all share the metal-tool radical and the worker's-implement sense.

phonetic

高 gāo

tall; high

高 (gāo) on the right supplies the sound — initial preserved, rime preserved, tone shifted to third (gǎo). Same phonetic powers 稿 (manuscript), 搞 (do), 篙 (punt-pole), 膏 (paste). 镐 also reads Hào in placenames (镐京, the early Zhou capital), keeping the gāo reading directly.