馊 (sōu) · sour and spoiled (of food), rancid

Meanings

1 sour and spoiled (of food)
2 rancid
3 smelling of rotting food

Characters

馊

sōu

sour-smelling; spoiled (of food)

Examples

HSK 3

饭放了两天，已经馊了。

Fàn fàng le liǎng tiān, yǐjīng sōu le.

The rice has been sitting for two days and has already gone sour.

HSK 4

天热的时候食物很容易馊。

Tiān rè de shíhou shíwù hěn róngyì sōu.

Food spoils easily in hot weather.

Tips

usage

馊 specifically describes the sour, unpleasant smell and taste of cooked food (especially rice or soup) that has gone bad. It is different from 臭 (general bad smell) or 腐 (rotten/decayed).

Components

radical

饣 shí

food (radical form)

Left food radical (the side-form of 食) - the indexing radical, marking 馊 as a food-related word. Anchors it in the kitchen family with 饭 rice, 饿 hungry, 饱 full, 馆 restaurant. Whenever a Chinese word names eating, dishes, or food gone wrong, 饣 is usually pinned to the left.

phonetic

叟 sǒu

old man (here phonetic)

Right 叟 supplies the sound, drifting from sǒu to sōu - a small tonal slide within the same syllable family. The 'old man' sense adds a faint flavour appropriate to the meaning: food that has aged, gone sour, started to spoil. The shared phonetic links 馊 with 嗖, 飕, 艘.