酒店
jiǔdiàn · HSK 2
public house
🍷🏨 酒 (alcohol) + 店 (shop) = alcohol shop, i.e. tavern or hotel
酒 means alcohol/wine and 店 means shop or establishment. Together they literally mean alcohol-shop. In modern Mandarin 酒店 most often denotes a hotel, but it retains the older sense of a wineshop or pub.
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.
店 — 广 (shelter radical) + 占 (zhān, phonetic)
店 is a semantic-phonetic compound. The radical 广 depicts a roof or open shelter, suggesting a building, while 占 supplies the sound (zhān → diàn). Originally it referred to a roadside inn or stall set up under a shelter, and over time the meaning narrowed to 'shop' or 'store'.
jiǔ diàn · HSK 3
hotel
🏨🍶 酒店 = 酒 (alcohol) + 店 (shop) — literally 'wine shop', now means hotel
Old inns served travelers food and drink, so 酒店 (alcohol-shop) came to mean a place to stay. Modern Mandarin keeps the name for hotels; 饭店 (rice-shop) works the same way.
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.
店 — 广 (shelter radical) + 占 (zhān, phonetic)
店 is a semantic-phonetic compound. The radical 广 depicts a roof or open shelter, suggesting a building, while 占 supplies the sound (zhān → diàn). Originally it referred to a roadside inn or stall set up under a shelter, and over time the meaning narrowed to 'shop' or 'store'.