About
啤 (pí) is a strictly modern phonosemantic compound, consisting of the mouth radical 口 (kǒu) on the left as the semantic component, indicating something consumed, and the character 卑 (bēi) on the right as the phonetic component, providing the sound. It was created in the modern era, during a period of intensified global trade and cultural exchange, specifically to transliterate the first syllable of the English word 'beer'. The character lacks any independent semantic history or classical usage and appears only in the compound 啤酒 (píjiǔ), where it is paired with 酒 (jiǔ, 'alcohol') to form the word for beer. As such, 啤 serves as a perfect illustration of the Chinese script's capacity to absorb entirely new foreign concepts through phonetic borrowing and semantic classification.
Example Sentences Hide
我喜欢喝啤酒。
我们晚上喝啤酒。
他买了一瓶青岛啤酒。
请给我一杯冰啤酒。
冰镇啤酒更好喝。
酒吧里有很多种啤酒。
喝啤酒要看场合。
啤酒虽然好喝但不能过量。
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