What 酳 means
It means rinsing the mouth with a little wine after eating.
The Yili, a book of ritual instructions, places 酳 after a meal; the Han Shu, a history of the Han dynasty, describes an official performing it. In the Shuowen Jiezi, an early Chinese dictionary, 酳 does not appear, so these records establish a ritual word but do not fix when its written form first appeared. In sacrificial rites, 酳 can also mean the after-meal drink offered to the person honored.
Why is 酳 in 合卺而酳?
合卺 names the split gourd; 酳 names the drinking act.
At a wedding, the couple shares food and then drinks from two cups made by splitting a gourd. The phrase 合卺而酳 links this rite to 交杯酒, the custom of drinking from one another’s cups.
Classical and ceremonial; it sounds like wording from a ritual text, not everyday Chinese.
A lone 酳 is too obscure for a generic toast; give it a ritual or quotation context.
What it means when someone sends it to you
3 readingsCombination ideas
3Questions people ask
2Is 酳 the same as 合卺?
No. 合卺 is the wedding rite or its split-gourd cup; 酳 is the drinking act performed in the rite.
Why does 酳 look different on my screen?
When your device renders it, the active font determines its shape. If the font lacks a glyph, a missing-character box appears; another font may draw the same character differently.
How to type 酳
酳\9173Codes and encoding1 code points
A visible symbol can contain several code points. JS .length counts UTF-16 units; UTF-8 counts bytes.