羹

gēng
noun #15,622

Meanings

  1. 1 thick soup
  2. 2 broth

Examples

HSK 3
Māma zuò le yī wǎn dàn huā gēng.
Mom made a bowl of egg drop soup.

Tips

culture
羹 refers to a thick, often starchy soup, different from the thinner 汤. Common dishes include 西湖牛肉羹 (West Lake beef soup) and 酸辣羹 (hot and sour soup).

Components

semantic
羔 gāo
lamb
Top 羔, a lamb (sheep over fire), the classic young-mutton ingredient. Stacks the meat half of the dish on top. 羹 originally meant a rich stew made by simmering young lamb until the broth thickened. Indexed under Kangxi #123 羊 by tradition, taken from the sheep inside 羔.
semantic
美 měi
beautiful; fine
Bottom 美, fine and savoury, drawn from a sheep with feathered horns. Together with the lamb above, 羹 gives 'fine sheep-meat stew', a luxurious classical dish, and by extension any thick soup. The character is essentially two sheep characters fused into one dish.

Filed under radical 羊 (yáng, #123) by convention. 羊 is not a separate component in 羹, so no strokes are highlighted.

Stroke Order

羹 gēng