How to Write 酊 (dīng/dǐng) — Meaning “Tincture”

Think of the right side 丁 as a small 'nail' (dīng) — imagine dipping a nail into a bottle of wine (酉) to make a tincture. The sound 'ding' helps you recall the pinyin dīng, and the image of a nail in wine links the character to its meaning.

Write the left radical 酉 with 7 strokes: start with the top horizontal, then the left vertical, complete the box, add a horizontal inside, and close with the bottom horizontal. The right side 丁 is 2 strokes: a horizontal hook followed by a vertical hook — do not make the hook too large or connect it to the left part.

酊 has the right-side part 丁, so it is a two-component character meaning tincture. 酉 is just the radical alone, meaning 'wine' or 'the tenth Earthly Branch'. 酋 has an extra stroke on top (a small horizontal line above 酉) and means 'chief' or 'leader', so look for that top line to tell it apart from 酊.

酊 appears mainly in medical and pharmaceutical terms, such as 碘酊 (diǎn dīng, tincture of iodine) and 酊剂 (dīng jì, tincture as a dosage form). It also appears in the literary word 酩酊 (mǐng dǐng), which means 'dead drunk' — a cultural expression used in classical poetry and formal writing.

Common words containing 酊 include: 酩酊 (mǐng dǐng) — intoxicated; 碘酊 (diǎn dīng) — Tincture of iodine; 酊剂 (dīng jì) — Tincture (medicine).