酪 (lào) · semi-solid food made from milk (cheese, junket, etc.)

Meanings

1 semi-solid food made from milk (cheese, junket, etc.)
2 fruit jelly; sweet paste made with crushed nuts

Characters

酪

lào

cheese; dairy product; jelly

Examples

HSK 4

我喜欢吃奶酪。

Wǒ xǐhuan chī nǎilào.

I like eating cheese.

Tips

usage

酪 is a bound morpheme, meaning it doesn't appear alone in modern Chinese. Common compounds: 奶酪 (cheese), 酸酪 (yogurt), 果酪 (fruit paste).

Components

radical

酉 yǒu

wine vessel; tenth earthly branch

Left wine-vessel radical - pictograph of a narrow-necked pot for fermented liquid. Indexes 酪 in the fermentation family with 酒 wine, 醋 vinegar, 酸 sour, 醒 to sober up. Anchors the meaning: 酪 is a fermented dairy product, the milk-equivalent of wine, made by curdling milk into curds and whey.

phonetic

各 gè

each; every

Right 各 supplies the sound - gè drifting to lào via well-attested g/l alternation in older readings. 各 itself shows a foot 夂 arriving at a mouth/cave 口, originally meaning 'each one arriving.' Carries no semantic content here; just the phonetic. Same phonetic in 落 to fall, 络 to wind, 路 road.