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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

我们住在学校的宿舍里。
Wǒmen zhù zài xuéxiào de sùshè lǐ.
We live in the school dormitory.
这个地方可以住宿。
Zhège dìfang kěyǐ zhùsù.
You can stay overnight at this place.
两国是宿敌。
Liǎngguó 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