葡萄酒

pú tao jiǔ · HSK 5

wine

葡萄酒 — wine

🍇🍷 葡萄 (grape) + 酒 (alcohol) = grape-wine

葡萄 means grape and 酒 means alcoholic drink, so 葡萄酒 is literally grape-alcohol — the standard word for wine. Compare 啤酒 (beer = 啤 + 酒) and 白酒 (clear liquor = white + 酒); 酒 is the generic alcohol morpheme.

酒 — water 氵 + 酉 (wine vessel)
酒 combines 氵 (water) with 酉, an ancient pictograph of a wine jar with a narrow neck. 酉 alone originally meant fermented liquor, but as it was borrowed for the tenth earthly branch, the water radical was added to keep the 'alcoholic drink' meaning clear.

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