工作餐 (gōng zuò cān) — work meal; a meal provided by the employer duri…

Definition

noun

work meala meal provided by the employer during working hours, often subsidized

Measure word · 份

工作餐。
Gōng sī měi tiān gěi yuán gōng tí gōng miǎn fèi de gōng zuò cān.
The company provides free work meals to employees every day.
工作餐，。
Zhè ge shí táng de gōng zuò cān wèi dào bú cuò, jià gé yě bú guì.
The work meals in this cafeteria taste good and are reasonably priced.
工作餐，。
Wǒ jīn tiān zhōng wǔ chī le gōng zuò cān, rán hòu jì xù kāi huì.
I had a work meal at noon today and then continued the meeting.

Compound word

构词法gòucífǎ

偏正piānzhèngModifier + head

The first part narrows down the second: it says what kind of thing the head is.

工作work

联合Side by side

The work sense of 工作 and the meal sense of 餐 combine to name a meal taken during work.

Characters in this word

A drawing of the thing itself, worn down over three thousand years into a few strokes.

The shape of 工 is a picture of a bladed tool used to plow ground or mark a border; some read it as a carpenter's square.

Most characters — around four in five — are built this way: one part hints at the meaning, the other at the pronunciation.

亻乍作

Meaning part形符xíngfú

亻Written in full as人rénperson

Sound part声符shēngfú

乍

The sound has drifted apartThe sound part was a clue two thousand years ago — it often still helps, but not always.

The left side 亻 comes from 人, meaning 'person', and the right side 乍 gives the sound.

Most characters — around four in five — are built this way: one part hints at the meaning, the other at the pronunciation.

𣦼食餐

Meaning part形符xíngfú

食食shíto eat; meal; food

Sound part声符shēngfú

𣦼

𣦼𣦼餐cān

The sound has drifted apartThe sound part was a clue two thousand years ago — it often still helps, but not always.

餐 combines 食, meaning food or eating, with 𣦼 as the sound part; it originally meant “to swallow.”