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醯 is a phono-semantic compound with the semantic radical 酉 (alcohol vessel, fermentation) on the left and the phonetic component 𥁩 (xī) on the right. In classical texts it meant vinegar or sour wine, a meaning directly tied to the fermentation implied by 酉. This original sense is now largely archaic and replaced by other characters, but 醯 has been adopted in organic chemistry for the acyl group. The right-hand component 𥁩 itself contains 皿 (dish, vessel), reinforcing the image of a liquid held in a container during fermentation.
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