gōng
noun

Meanings

  1. 1 ancient horn-shaped wine vessel

Examples

Gōng chóu jiāocuò, xíngróng yànhuì rènào.
"Wine cups and drinking tallies in a tangle" pictures a lively, boisterous banquet.
Gǔdài zhǔrén jǔqǐ gōng xiàng kèrén jìngjiǔ.
In ancient times the host would raise a horn wine vessel to toast his guests.

Tips

culture
A was a bronze or horn wine vessel of the Shang and Zhou dynasties. The set phrase 觥筹交错 ("cups and tallies interlaced") is still the standard way to evoke a noisy feast.

Components

radical
jiǎo
horn
is the horn radical, signalling that the vessel was originally carved from an animal horn. It anchors the meaning of .
phonetic
guāng
light; bright
supplies the sound (guāng shifted to gōng) and adds no meaning here. The reading has drifted from the modern pronunciation of .

Stroke Order

gōng