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宿

sù / xiǔ / xiù
verb #4,852

Meanings

  1. 1 to lodge; to stay overnight
  2. 2 old; long-standing; veteran
  3. 3 lodging; accommodation

Examples

HSK 2
这个地方可以住宿。
Zhège dìfang kěyǐ zhùsù.
You can stay overnight at this place.
HSK 5
我们住在学校的宿舍里。
Wǒmen zhù zài xuéxiào de sùshè lǐ.
We live in the school dormitory.
HSK 6
两国是宿敌。
Liǎng guó shì sùdí.
The two countries are long-standing rivals.

Tips

usage
Two clusters keep 宿 in everyday Chinese. Lodging: 宿舍 (dorm), 住宿 (to stay overnight), 民宿 (homestay), 寄宿 (to board). "Long-standing / old": 宿敌 (old rival), 宿愿 (long-cherished wish), 宿命 (fate from a past life).
mistakes
宿 has three readings. sù is the main one - lodging and "long-standing". xiǔ is a classifier for nights spent (住 了 三 宿 - stayed three nights). xiù refers to constellations in classical astronomy (二十八宿 - the 28 lunar mansions).

Components

radical
宀 mián
roof (radical)
Top radical 宀 - a peaked roof with two short walls, indexing radical for 宿. Establishes 'inside a building' - and since 宿 is about lodging and overnighting, the roof carries the core meaning. Same radical anchors the home-family 家 (home), 室 (room), 安 (peace), 客 (guest), 寄 (board with).
semantic
亻 rén
person (semantic)
Inner-left 亻 - the side-form of 人 (person), tucked under the roof. Pictures the lodger or overnight guest taking shelter for the night. The combination 'person under roof' makes 宿 transparent as 'to stay, to lodge'.
semantic
百 bǎi
hundred; (here) mat
Right of the 亻, the 百 shape. In oracle-bone graphs this element was a woven mat that the figure rested on for the night, only later conflated with the modern 'hundred' character. So the full picture is roof + person + mat = lodging. Modern 百 retains only its surface meaning 'hundred'; here it functions as a semantic remnant of the original sleeping mat.

Stroke Order

宿 sù