醍

tí
noun #36,671

Meanings

  1. 1 clarified butter; ghee; the finest cream

Examples

HSK 7-9
Tā de huà xiàng tíhú-guàndǐng, ràng wǒ huòrán-kāilǎng.
His words were like having ghee poured on my head - they gave me sudden clarity.
HSK 7-9
Tí zhège zì jīhū zhǐ chūxiàn zài tí hú lǐ.
The character 醍 almost only appears in the word 醍醐.

Tips

usage
醍 is a bound morpheme - you'll only meet it in 醍醐 (tíhú, clarified butter / ghee), and almost always in the chengyu 醍醐灌顶 (tíhú-guàndǐng, 'pouring ghee on the head' = sudden enlightenment). Worth learning that single context.

Components

radical
酉 yǒu
wine jar; 10th earthly branch
Wine-jar radical on the left, the indexing radical. It pictures a sealed pot of fermenting wine and groups 醍 with 酒 wine, 醋 vinegar, 酱 sauce, 酥 crisp - the food-processing family of dairy and brewing. 醍醐 (clarified butter, ghee) sits naturally here: dairy that's been refined like wine.
phonetic
是 shì
to be; this
Right side 是 supplies the sound - shì shifted to tí in 醍's reading. The 'this; correct' meaning is dormant; treat it as a phonetic. Same root in 提 to lift, 题 topic, 堤 dyke - all show the related tí/dī sound family rather than borrowing 'this'.

Stroke Order

醍 tí