空哥 (kōng gē) — male flight attendant, steward (on an airplane)

Definition

Colloquial term for a male flight attendant, modeled on 空姐 ('flight sister' for female attendants). It's the everyday spoken equivalent of the more formal 男乘务员.

noun
male flight attendantsteward (on an airplane)
Measure word · 位

Examples

  • 空哥,。
    Zhè wèi kōng gē hěn yǒu lǐ mào, bāng wǒ bǎ xíng li fàng hǎo le.
    This male flight attendant was very polite and helped me put my luggage away.
  • 空哥,。
    Wǒ péng you zài háng kōng gōng sī zuò kōng gē, jīng cháng fēi guó jì háng xiàn.
    My friend works as a flight attendant at an airline and often flies international routes.
  • 空哥。
    kōng gē Hé kōng jiě yì qǐ wèi chéng kè tí gōng cān yǐn fú wù.
    The male and female flight attendants together provide meal service to passengers.

Origin

Compound word
构词法gòucífǎ
偏正piānzhèngModifier + head

The first part narrows down the second: it says what kind of thing the head is.

哥gēbrother

“空” air and “哥” brother describe a male person working in the air.

Characters in this word

Most characters — around four in five — are built this way: one part hints at the meaning, the other at the pronunciation.

Meaning part形符xíngfú
穴穴xuécave, hole
Sound part声符shēngfú
工
工gōng空kōng
Close in sound todayThe sound part was a clue two thousand years ago — it often still helps, but not always.

空 is built from 穴, a cave or hole, and 工, which gives the sound.

Open 空 →

No reliable origin is recorded for this character.

Open 哥 →

Browse more HSK 7-9 words or search the full 43,000-word dictionary.