馊 (sōu): sour and spoiled (of food)

Meanings

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

Characters

馊

sōu

sour-smelling; spoiled (of food)

Examples

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.

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 (chòu, general bad smell) or 腐 (fǔ, 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 verb. 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.