Translingual

Stroke order

Stroke order

Alternative forms

• (when used as a left Chinese radical) 𩙿／飠／饣

Han character

食 (radical 184 食+0, 9 strokes, cangjie input 人戈日女 (OIAV), four-corner 8073₂, composition ⿱亽艮)

1. Kangxi radical #184, ⾷ ‎(“eat”).

Derived terms

• Index:Chinese radical/食

References

• KangXi: page 1415, character 29
• Dai Kanwa Jiten: character 44014
• Dae Jaweon: page 1939, character 10
• Hanyu Da Zidian: volume 7, page 4440, character 1
• Unihan data for U+98DF

Chinese

Glyph origin

Historical forms of the character 食
Oracle bone script	Bronze inscriptions	Large seal script	Small seal script

Pictogram (象形) : a mouth over a bowl of rice on a stand. While the current form is 人+良, the lower part (bowl of rice on a stand) is cognate to 皀, not to 良 or 艮. This is more visible in the form 𠊊.

Shuowen: Phono-semantic compound (形聲, OC *lɯɡs, *ɦljɯɡ) : phonetic 亼 ‎(OC *zub) + semantic 皀; see 𠊊.

Etymology 1

From Proto-Sino-Tibetan *m/s/g-ljak.

Pronunciation

Definitions

食

1. ^†(Cantonese, Hakka, Min) to eat; to have a meal; to take in

   你食咗飯未呀？ [Cantonese, trad.]

   你食咗饭未呀？ [Cantonese, simp.]

   Nei⁵sik⁶ zo² faan⁶ mei⁶ aa³? [Jyutping]

   Have you eaten yet?

   • 中國人係揸筷子食飯嘅。 [Cantonese, trad.]
     中国人系揸筷子食饭嘅。 [Cantonese, simp.]

     Zung¹ gwok³ jan⁴ hai⁶ zaa¹ faai³ zi²sik⁶ faan⁶ ge³. [Jyutping]

     Chinese people use chopsticks to eat with.

   • 上星期日我同啲朋友一齊食晚飯。 [Cantonese, trad.]
     上星期日我同啲朋友一齐食晚饭。 [Cantonese, simp.]

     Soeng⁶ sing¹ kei⁴ jat⁶ ngo⁵ tung⁴ di¹ pang⁴ jau⁵ jat¹ cai⁴sik⁶ maan⁵ faan⁶. [Jyutping]

     Last Sunday, I ate dinner together with my friends.

2. (Hakka, Min) to drink

   食茶 [Teochew]  ―  ziah⁸ tê⁵ [Peng'im]  ―  to drink tea

   • 食燒酒 / 食烧酒 [Min Nan]  ―  chia̍h sio-chiú [Pe̍h-ōe-jī]  ―  to drink rice wine
   • 食酒愛食竹葉青。 [Hakka, trad.]
     食酒爱食竹叶青。 [Hakka, simp.]
     From: 食酒歌

     Sṳ̍t-chiú oi sṳ̍t chuk-ya̍p-chhiâng. [Pha̍k-fa-sṳ]

     If you're drink wine, you have to drink Zhuyeqing (three-year-old Shaoxing wine).

3. (Cantonese, Hakka, Min) to smoke

   食煙 / 食烟 [Cantonese]  ―  sik⁶ jin¹ [Jyutping]  ―  to smoke

4. (Cantonese, chess, etc.) to capture
5. ^†meal; food
6. ^†edible
7. ^†Alternative form of 蝕／蚀 (shí, “to eat away; to erode”).
8. ^†Alternative form of 蝕／蚀 (shí, “eclipse (of the Sun or Moon)”).

Usage notes

• Cantonese, Hakka, and Min regularly uses 食 to mean “to eat”, whereas Mandarin uses 吃 (chī).
• Mandarin uses 吸 (xī) for “to smoke”.

Synonyms

Compounds

Etymology 2

The *s- causative of Etymology 1. See 飼 for more.

Pronunciation

Definitions

食

1. ^†Alternative form of 飼／饲 (sì, “to feed; to make ... eat or cause ... to eat”).

Etymology 3

Pronunciation

Definitions

食

1. ^†Only used in names.

   酈食其 / 郦食其  ―  Lì Yìjī  ―  Li Yiji (an advisor to Liu Bang)

Japanese

Kanji

(grade 2 “Kyōiku” kanji)

1. to eat
2. a meal

Readings

• Goon: い (i), じ (ji), じき (jiki)
• Kan’on: い (i), し (shi), しょく (shoku)
• Kun: くう (食う kuu), くらう (食らう kurau), たべる (食べる taberu), はむ (食む hamu), すく (食く suku), おし (食し oshi), おす (食す osu), たぐ (食ぐ tagu), たぶ (食ぶ tabu), うか (食 uka), うけ (食 uke), け (食 ke), し (食 shi)

Compounds

Usage notes

This character has a simplified form of 飠 when used to compose larger characters, as seen in 飲. This character is not simplified when used as itself. It can also appear in an alternative form as in 餡.

Etymology 1

Unbound apophonic form uke.

Noun

食 ‎(hiragana うか, romaji uka)

1. food
2. grain

Etymology 2

uka + i → uke₂ → uke. Bound apophonic form 食 ‎(uka).

Noun

食 ‎(hiragana うけ, romaji uke)

1. food

Etymology 3

Cognate with 笥 ‎(ke).

Noun

食 ‎(hiragana け, romaji ke)

1. food

Noun

食 ‎(hiragana し, romaji shi)

1. food

Noun

食 ‎(hiragana しょく, romaji shoku)

1. a meal
2. foodstuff
3. an eclipse

Korean

Hanja

食 • ‎(sik)
Eumhun:

• Sound (hangeul): 식 (revised: sik, McCune-Reischauer: sik, Yale: sik)

• Name (hangeul): 식()

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Vietnamese

Han character

食 (thực, tự)

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