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美酒 (měi jiǔ) — fine wine; good liquor; excellent alcoholic drink

Definition

A literary or appreciative term for 'fine wine / good liquor' — 美 emphasizes quality and is more elegant than plain 酒, often used in writing, toasts, or hospitality contexts like 招待客人.

noun
fine winegood liquorexcellent alcoholic drink
Measure word · 杯

Examples

  • 美酒。
    Zhè píng měi jiǔ shì péng you cóng fǎ guó dài huí lái de.
    This bottle of fine wine was brought back from France by a friend.
  • 美酒。
    Jīn wǎn wǒ men yì biān liáo tiān yì biān hē měi jiǔ.
    Tonight we'll chat and drink good wine together.
  • 美酒。
    Zhǔ rén ná chū zhēn cáng duō nián de měi jiǔ zhāo dài kè rén.
    The host brought out fine liquor that had been stored for many years to entertain the guests.

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.

美měigood
酒jiǔliquor

美 gives the sense of fine or good, and 酒 names an alcoholic drink, so the result is excellent liquor.

Characters in this word

Two or more meaningful parts placed together so that their meanings combine into a new one.

美 shows 大, a person, wearing 羊, a headdress of feathers or ram's horn.

Open 美 →

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
水水shuǐ
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.

Open 酒 →
Appears in
Alcohol & Tobacco

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