早餐 (zǎo cān) — breakfast | TongTong Chinese Dictionary

Definition

早餐 means 'breakfast' — same meaning as 早饭. 早上 is 'morning' (a time of day), not a meal.

noun

breakfast

Measure word · 份, 顿, 次

Examples

早餐，。
Jīn tiān zǎo shàng de zǎo cān hěn hǎo chī, yǒu miàn bāo hé niú nǎi.
This morning's breakfast was delicious — there was bread and milk.
早餐。
Mā ma gěi wǒ men zhǔn bèi le fēng fù de zǎo cān.
Mom prepared a hearty breakfast for us.
早餐，。
Tā měi tiān dōu bù chī zǎo cān, yīn wèi méi shí jiān.
He doesn't eat breakfast every day because he has no time.

Origin

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.

早 points to the morning, and 餐 to a meal, together naming breakfast.

Characters in this word

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

Meaning part形符xíngfú

日日rìsun

Sound part声符shēngfú

棗

棗zǎo早zǎo

Same sound today

The form 早 pairs 日 (sun) with 棗, which gives the sound; an earlier shape of 早 was a picture of an acorn.

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.”

Appears in

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