误食 (wù shí) — to accidentally eat something poisonous or ined…

Definition

verb

to accidentally eat something poisonous or inedible

Easily confused

误食。
Tā bù xiǎo xīn wù shí le yǒu dú de mó gu.
He accidentally ate poisonous mushrooms.
误食，。
Rú guǒ wù shí le biàn zhì shí wù, yào gǎn jǐn qù yī yuàn.
If you accidentally eat spoiled food, you should go to the hospital quickly.
误食，。
Zhè zhǒng yào wù bù néng wù shí, fǒu zé huì yǒu wēi xiǎn.
This kind of medicine must not be accidentally ingested, otherwise there will be danger.

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.

误wùmistakenly

The 'mistakenly' sense of 误 applies to 食, giving 'to eat something by mistake'.

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 誤; 误 is its simplified writing.

Meaning part形符xíngfú

言言yánspeech

Sound part声符shēngfú

吳

吳wú誤wù

Same sound today

The traditional form 誤 uses 言 (speech) for meaning and 吳 for sound, giving the idea of speaking an error; the simplified 误 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.