Definitions

láo wine or liquor with sediment

Etymology phono-semantic

wine

Semantic: Phonetic:

About

The character is formed by the alcohol radical (associated with fermentation vessels and alcoholic substances) and the phonetic component . It refers to unclarified, unfiltered fermented beverages, wine or liquor that still contains mash, dregs, or floating grain sediment from brewing. This term appears in traditional brewing contexts to differentiate thick, cloudy, newly fermented drinks from strained and purified ones, often in culinary and historical texts.

Etymology Hide

Seal etymology image
Seal Shuowen (~100 AD)
Clerical etymology image
Clerical Western Han dynasty (202 BC-9 AD)
Clerical etymology image
Clerical Eastern Han dynasty (25-220 AD)
Traditional Modern
Simplified Modern