酸

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sour; tart; sick at heart; grieved; sore; aching; pedantic; impractical; to make sarcastic remarks about sb; an acid

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Formation & memory

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Ideographic compound (会意字)

Wine 酉 aged too long 夋; 夋 also provides the pronunciation

Components 酉夋

sour · Heisig RSH #2474

whiskey bottle + streetwalker

Keyword method from Heisig's Remembering Simplified Hanzi.

The most common words first — learning a character in context makes it stick.

Word	Pinyin	Meaning
心酸	xīn suān	to feel sad
酸性	suān xìng	acidity
德国酸菜	Dé guó suān cài	sauerkraut
酸民	suān mín	(Tw) (Internet) troll
酒石酸	jiǔ shí suān	tartaric acid
反酸	fǎn suān	acid reflux; regurgitation
油酸	yóu suān	oleic acid
草酸	cǎo suān	oxalic acid C2H2O4
亚麻酸	yà má suān	linolenic acid
单宁酸	dān níng suān	tannic acid (loanword)
酸菜	suān cài	pickled vegetables, especially Chinese cabbage
解酸药	jiě suān yào	antacid
制酸剂	zhì suān jì	antacid (medicine)
法式酸奶油	Fǎ shì suān nǎi yóu	crème fraîche
核酸	hé suān	nucleic acid; (coll.) nucleic acid test (abbr. for 核酸檢測\|核酸检测[he2 suan1 jian3 ce4])
酸曲	suān qǔ	love song
强酸	qiáng suān	strong acid
酸根	suān gēn	negative ion; acid radical
叶酸	yè suān	folic acid
甲酸	jiǎ suān	formylic acid (HCOOH); formic acid; methanoic acid