お酒
おさけ · osake · JLPT N5 · noun
alcohol
🍶 O-sake: sake with the polite O in front — oh, sake! Any alcohol at all.
お is the honorific prefix (as in お茶 ocha, tea) and 酒 sake means alcohol. English borrowed sake for rice wine only, but in Japanese お酒 covers every alcoholic drink: beer, wine and whisky included.
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.