炒 (chǎo): to stir-fry; to sauté

Meanings

1 to stir-fry; to sauté
2 to speculate (stocks, real estate)
3 to fire/sack (an employee)

Characters

炒

chǎo

to stir-fry

Examples

HSK 3

这道菜要大火炒。

Zhè dào cài yào dàhuǒ chǎo.

This dish needs to be stir-fried over high heat.

HSK 3

他被公司炒了。

Tā bèi gōngsī chǎo le.

He was fired by the company.

HSK 6

这几年他一直在炒股票，赚了不少钱。

Zhè jǐ nián tā yīzhí zài chǎo gǔpiào, zhuàn le bùshǎo qián.

He has been playing the stock market for the past few years and made quite a bit of money.

Tips

usage

炒鱿鱼 (stir-fry squid) is slang for 'to fire someone' - because squid curls up when fried, like rolling up your bedroll when kicked out. 被炒了 = got fired.

memory

火 (fire) radical on the left + 少 (shǎo, few/little). Cooking with fire and a small amount of oil = stir-frying.

Components

radical

火 huǒ

fire

Left indexing fire radical 火 (Kangxi #86) - pictograph of flames rising. Carries the meaning core: stir-frying is by definition a high-flame cooking method. Anchors 炒 in the cooking family alongside 烤 (roast), 烧 (cook), 煎 (pan-fry), 炖 (stew), 炸 (deep-fry). The Chinese culinary verbs are sorted by what the fire is doing, and 炒 is the quick-toss-over-flame member of that set.

phonetic

少 shǎo

few; little

Right component supplies the sound: 少 shǎo → chǎo with onset shift. Adds a faint semantic flavour - stir-frying uses a small amount of oil and a brief contact with heat, the 'less is more' technique. The slang sense 'to fire someone' (炒鱿鱼 'stir-fry the squid') and 'to speculate' (炒股) extend the picture to anything quick and turbulent.