摄食 (shè shí) — (formal, especially biology) to forage for food…

Definition

A formal/biology term for animals' feeding and food-intake behavior. Rare outside scientific writing on animal diets or digestion.

verb

(formal, especially biology) to forage for foodto ingest

摄食。
Zhè zhǒng niǎo tōng cháng zài qīng chén shè shí.
This kind of bird usually forages in the early morning.
摄食。
Kē xué jiā yán jiū le zhè zhǒng dòng wù de shè shí xí guàn.
Scientists studied the feeding habits of this animal.
。
Zhè zhǒng yú měi tiān shè liǎng cì shí.
This kind of fish feeds twice a day.

Compound word

构词法gòucífǎ

动宾dòngbīnVerb + object

An action followed by what it acts on, fused into one word.

摄 means to take in, and 食 refers to food, so together they mean forage or ingest.

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.

This origin belongs to the traditional form 攝; 摄 is its simplified writing.

扌聶攝

Meaning part形符xíngfú

扌Written in full as手shǒuhand

Sound part声符shēngfú

聶

聶niè攝shè

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

The traditional form 攝 combines 扌 (hand) with 聶 as a sound part; the simplified 摄 is a later shorthand.

Two or more meaningful parts placed together so that their meanings combine into a new one.

The form behind 食 shows 亼, a mouth, together with 皀, a bowl of rice on a stand. In modern 食, the bowl part has changed shape.