酒水
jiǔ shuǐ · HSK 6
beverage
🍷💧 酒 (alcohol) + 水 (water) = drinks in general
The two characters literally combine alcohol and water, covering the whole spectrum from wine to tea. Any liquid you'd order at a restaurant counts as 酒水.
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.
水 — pictograph of flowing water
水 is a pictograph depicting a stream of flowing water, with the central line representing the main current and the side strokes showing splashing droplets or ripples. In oracle bone script it was drawn even more clearly as a wavy vertical line with branches. It retains its original meaning of 'water' and also serves as a radical, often appearing in the compressed form 氵.