Friday 24 February 2012

Ancient Chinese names for alcohol

The ancient Chinese seem to have had a number of names for the alcohols they produced. The Oracle Bone script (甲骨文; China’s earliest systematic writing) of the late 2nd millennium BC and inscriptions on bronze vessels of the early 1st millennium BC mention (with modern pronunciation but original meaning):
• 酒 (jiu, today's sake or “strong beer”),
• 醨 (li, thin alcoholic beverage),
• 醴 (li, “made-overnight alcoholic beverage”), and
• 酪 (lao; fermented milk).
Other related characters from that period include:
• 酉 (you; wine vessel),
• 酋 (qiu; master brewer),
• 酗 (xu; to get angry when drunk),
• 醜 (chou; to be embarrassed [presumably through drink]),
• 酸 (suan; acid), what brewers are left with if the fermentation process is not stopped after alcohol is produced,
• 醯 (xi; vinegar used for pickling),
• 醫 (yi; potion/physician),
• and the interesting case of 配 (pei; to match).
This last word was long interpreted as a contraction of 酒色 (jiu-se, literally “wine color”), indicating the flush on the face caused by wine. But earlier forms of the character discovered on Oracle Bones show a person kneeling next to a wine vessel, interpreted as depicting a marriage ceremony anointed by wine and thus taking on the meaning “to mate.”

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