警

Phono-semantic compound:

言 (“speech, words”) — semantic element, showing its relation to speaking, warning, and admonition.

敬 (gyeong / jìng, “to respect, to revere”) — phonetic element, also contributing the sense of seriousness or gravity.

Thus the character conveys the idea of serious words of warning or respectful admonition.

警告 (경고) — warning, admonition

警戒 (경계) — vigilance, to be on guard

警察 (경찰) — police

警鐘 (경종) — alarm bell, warning signal

警醒 (경성) — to awaken, to make alert

In Confucian texts, 警 often appears in the sense of moral admonition—words that awaken one to correct conduct.

The compound 警醒 emphasizes not just waking from sleep but awakening to awareness, echoing Buddhist and Daoist notions of enlightenment through sudden realization.

In modern East Asian languages, 警 has become strongly institutionalized in policing and public safety, but its older sense of “wakefulness of the heart-mind” remains embedded in classical literature.