米酒 (mǐ jiǔ) — rice wine; sake | TongTong Chinese Dictionary

Definition

noun

rice winesake

Measure word · 杯

米酒，。
Dōng tiān hē yì bēi wēn mǐ jiǔ, quán shēn dōu nuǎn huo le.
Drinking a cup of warm rice wine in winter warms up the whole body.
米酒，。
Zhè zhǒng mǐ jiǔ shì rì běn chǎn de, wèi dào hěn chún hòu.
This sake is made in Japan and has a rich, mellow flavor.
米酒。
Zuò zhè dào cài xū yào jiā yì diǎn mǐ jiǔ qù xīng.
To make this dish, you need to add a little rice wine to remove the fishy smell.

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.

米 means rice and 酒 means wine, naming wine made from rice.

Characters in this word

A drawing of the thing itself, worn down over three thousand years into a few strokes.

米 is a picture of rice kernels without husk, with the horizontal stroke as a bamboo sieve. It is unrelated to similar-looking grain characters.

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

Sound part声符shēngfú

酉

酉yǒu酒jiǔ

The sound has drifted apartThe sound part was a clue two thousand years ago — it often still helps, but not always.

酒 pairs 酉, the original picture for this word, with 水 (water), added later to distinguish it.

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