火锅
huǒ guō · HSK 7
hotpot
🍲🔥 火锅 = fire (huǒ) + pot (guō) = a pot heated over fire at the table
火 huǒ means fire and 锅 guō means pot or pan. Diners cook raw ingredients in a simmering pot of broth kept hot over a flame, so the name is literally fire-pot.
火 — pictograph of flames rising
火 is a pictograph showing flames rising upward from a fire, with the central stroke as the main blaze and the side strokes as sparks. The ancient oracle bone form looked even more clearly like a burning flame. It still means 'fire' today and serves as a common radical in characters related to heat, burning, or cooking.
锅 — metal radical 钅 + 呙 (phonetic)
A semantic-phonetic compound. The metal radical 钅 (金) signals the meaning — a metal cooking vessel, i.e. a pot or wok. The right-hand component 呙 (guō/wāi) supplies the sound. Originally written 鍋 in traditional script, simplified to 锅 in modern mainland use.
huǒ guō · HSK 4
hot pot
🍲🔥 火锅 = fire (火) + pot (锅), literally 'fire pot'
A compound of 火 (huǒ, fire) and 锅 (guō, pot/wok). The dish is named for the simmering pot of broth heated over a flame at the table, where diners cook raw ingredients themselves.
火 — pictograph of flames rising
火 is a pictograph showing flames rising upward from a fire, with the central stroke as the main blaze and the side strokes as sparks. The ancient oracle bone form looked even more clearly like a burning flame. It still means 'fire' today and serves as a common radical in characters related to heat, burning, or cooking.
锅 — metal radical 钅 + 呙 (phonetic)
A semantic-phonetic compound. The metal radical 钅 (金) signals the meaning — a metal cooking vessel, i.e. a pot or wok. The right-hand component 呙 (guō/wāi) supplies the sound. Originally written 鍋 in traditional script, simplified to 锅 in modern mainland use.