醒
xǐng · HSK 4
wake up
☀️ 酉 (wine jar) + 星 (star) — sober up till you see stars at dawn
Left 酉 is the ancient wine-jar radical, tying 醒 to drinking and sobering. Right 星 (xīng) gives the sound, near-identical to xǐng. So 醒 = wine-jar + star: sobering up, waking, becoming clear-headed.
醒 — wine/alcohol 酉 + star 星 (phonetic)
A semantic-phonetic compound. The left side 酉 depicts a wine jar and gives the meaning 'related to alcohol' — originally 'to sober up from drunkenness.' The right side 星 (xīng) supplies the sound. The meaning later broadened to 'wake up' and 'become aware.'