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Etymology data from Wiktionary via Wiktextract (CC BY-SA 4.0). Chinese character data from the 說文解字, the Taiwan MOE 國語辭典簡編本 (CC BY-ND 3.0 TW) and HSK/TOCFL lists.

Explanations are written by a local model (gemma4) and only published after a verification pass against the cited sources. How it works.

Chinese

酒

jiǔ
alcoholic beverages in general; alcoholic drink; booze
  • Phono-semantic compound 形聲
  • HSK 2
  • TOCFL 2
  • radical 酉
  • 10 strokes

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Origin

Phono-semantic compound (形聲 /形声, OC *ʔsluʔ): semantic 水 + phonetic 酉 (OC *luʔ). 酉 (OC *luʔ) is the original pictogram for this word; 水 was added later to distinguish.

From Proto-Sino-Tibetan *jəw (“liquor”) (STEDT). Cognate with 酉 (OC *luʔ, “wine; wine vessel”).

From Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Lineage

  • inheritedProto-Sino-Tibetan*jəw “liquor”
  • meaningChinese水 “water (Classifier: 瓶 m; 樽 c; 滴 m c; 池 m c; 盆 m c; 杯 m c)”
  • soundChinese酉 “an alcoholic drink vessel”

Words built on it: 啤酒, 酒店, 酒吧

Meanings

character
  1. alcoholic beverages in general; alcoholic drink; booze
  2. banquet (Classifier: 圍／围 c)
  3. a surname

Shuowen Jiezi 說文解字

酒：就也，所以就人性之善惡。从水从酉，酉亦聲。一曰造也，吉凶所造也。古者儀狄作酒醪，禹嘗之而美，遂䟽儀狄。杜康作秫酒。

Xu Shen, c. 100 CE — the first analytical dictionary of Chinese characters.

國語辭典 definitions

  1. 用米、麥或水果等含醣類的食物為原料，經發酵釀製而成的飲料。 例：米酒、葡萄酒、荔枝酒

© Ministry of Education, Taiwan — CC BY-ND 3.0 TW, shown unaltered.

How 酒 was written 字形演變

  1. 酒 in Oracle bone script
    Oracle bone
    甲骨文
    Shang, c. 1250–1050 BCE
  2. 酒 in Bronze script
    Bronze
    金文
    Shang–Zhou
  3. 酒 in Chu slips & silk script
    Chu slips & silk
    楚系簡帛
    Warring States
  4. 酒 in Small seal script
    Small seal
    說文小篆
    Shuowen, c. 100 CE
  5. 酒 in Regular script
    Regular
    楷書
    since c. 200 CE

Historical forms collected by the legacy etymfun dataset; most characters have several attested variants.

Sources

  • Historical glyph forms (zdic.net 字形演变) — Rights unverified
  • HSK / TOCFL word lists — Facts (levels)
  • 教育部《國語辭典簡編本》 (Taiwan MOE) — CC BY-ND 3.0 TW
  • 說文解字 Shuowen Jiezi (Xu Shen, c. 100 CE) — Public domain
  • Written form — n/a
  • Wiktionary (via Wiktextract / kaikki.org) — CC BY-SA 4.0
  • Wiktionary: 酒