饭

Etymology & Components

The Chinese character 饭 (fàn) for "cooked rice" or "meal" is composed of two parts: the radical 食 (shí), which indicates that the character is related to food, and the phonetic component 反 (fǎn). The radical 食 is a pictograph of a person's mouth with food in it, while the phonetic component 反 is a simplified form of the character 返 (fǎn), which means "to return" or "to go back". The combination of these two components suggests the idea of "returning to eat" or "going back for a meal", which is the basic meaning of the character 饭.Over time, the meaning of 饭 has expanded to include not only cooked rice but also other types of food that are eaten as a meal. It can also be used as a verb, meaning "to eat" or "to have a meal". In modern Chinese, 饭 is a common word that is used in everyday speech and writing. It is also used in a number of idioms and proverbs, such as 民以食为天 (mín yǐ shí wéi tiān), which means "food is the most important thing for the people".