酬 (chóu): to reward

Meanings

1 to reward
2 to compensate
3 to repay
4 to respond (in poetry exchange)

Characters

酬

chóu

to reward / to repay / to respond in kind

Examples

他以厚礼相酬，表达谢意。

Tā yǐ hòulǐ xiāng chóu, biǎodá xièyì.

He rewarded with generous gifts to express his gratitude.

两位诗人互相唱酬，留下佳作。

Liǎng wèi shīrén hùxiāng chàng chóu, liúxià jiāzuò.

The two poets exchanged verses with each other, leaving behind fine works.

Tips

usage

酬 rarely appears alone in modern Chinese. It is most common in compounds: 报酬 (reward/compensation), 酬谢 (to thank with a gift), 酬劳 (remuneration), 应酬 (social engagement/wining and dining).

Components

radical

酉 yǒu

wine vessel; 10th earthly branch

Left-side wine-jar radical — a pictograph of an amphora with a narrow neck and wide belly, the vessel used to ferment and store wine. Indexes 酬 in the wine and reciprocity family alongside 酒 alcohol, 醉 drunk, 酱 fermented sauce. The original 酬 was the host's return toast — wine for wine.

phonetic

州 zhōu

prefecture; sandbar (here phonetic)

Right side 州 supplies the sound: zhōu drifted to chóu via a regular zh/ch alternation. 州 itself depicts three sandbars in a river — imagery that doesn't transfer here. Modern 酬 keeps the wine-toast root but the meaning has stretched to cover every form of repayment, from a host's reply to a worker's wage.