餐 (cān) — (bound form) meal; food; (bound form, formal) to eat
Definition
餐 is a bound formal/ written morpheme meaning 'meal' or 'food' — almost always attached to another character (早餐, 餐厅, 野餐) rather than used alone. Colloquial speech prefers 饭 for 'meal'.
bound form
mealfood(bound form, formal) to eat
Examples
- ？Nǐ chī zǎo cān le ma?Have you had breakfast?
- 。Zhè jiā cān tīng de cài hěn hǎo chī.The food in this restaurant is delicious.
- 。Wǒ men yì qǐ qù yě cān ba.Let's go on a picnic together.
Origin
Sound + meaning六书liùshū
形声xíngshēngMost characters — around four in five — are built this way: one part hints at the meaning, the other at the pronunciation.
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.”
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