Etymology

From earlier Old Japanese form 食ぶ ‎(tabu, “to (humbly) receive or get”, from a superior), a verb with the 下二段 ‎(shimo nidan) or lower bigrade conjugation pattern. This was the humble form of 賜ぶ, 給ぶ ‎(tabu, “to (deign to) give”, to an inferior), a verb with the full 四段 ‎(yodan) or quadrigrade conjugation pattern.^[1][2]

Older bigrade tabu became modern monograde taberu due to a regular shift in lower bigrade verbs, whereby the older 終止形 ‎(shūshikei, “terminal form”) ending in -u was replaced with the 連体形 ‎(rentaikei, “attributive form”) ending in -eru.

Most likely cognate with 給う ‎(tamau, “to give”, as a superior gives a thing to, or does something for, an inferior).

Compare the historical development of meaning from “to humbly receive” → “to eat”, with the modern use of the humble verb 頂く ‎(itadaku, “to receive”) just before eating, in a sense of “I humbly receive this food.”

Pronunciation

• Kun'yomi
• (Tokyo) たべ​る [tàbéꜜrù] (Nakadaka - [2])^[2]
• IPA^(key): [ta̠be̞ɾ̠ɯᵝ]