食

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

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

1. Kangxi radical #184, ⾷.

• Appendix:Chinese radical/食
• 𠋡, 喰, 湌, 𪦿, 𣈮, 𬨷, 𮇯, 𮔣, 𨢁, 𨩭, 𩩶
• 𮖛, 𪞓, 䓹, 篒, 𩮍, 𧃊, 𠩸, 𫷸, 𤸤, 𫔨

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

Historical forms of the character 食
Shang	Western Zhou	Spring and Autumn	Warring States			Shuowen Jiezi (compiled in Han)	Liushutong (compiled in Ming)
Oracle bone script	Bronze inscriptions	Bronze inscriptions	Bronze inscriptions	Chu slip and silk script	Qin slip script	Small seal script	Transcribed ancient scripts

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.

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

食

1. (literary or Cantonese, Hakka) 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.]

   nei⁵ sik⁶ 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 zi² sik⁶ 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 cai⁴ sik⁶ maan⁵ faan⁶. [Jyutping]

   Last Sunday, I ate dinner together with my friends.

   • 吾嘗終日不食，終夜不寢，以思，無益，不如學也。 [Classical Chinese, trad.]
     吾尝终日不食，终夜不寝，以思，无益，不如学也。 [Classical Chinese, simp.]

     From: The Analects of Confucius, c. 475 – 221 BCE, translated based on James Legge's version

     Wú cháng zhōngrì bù shí, zhōngyè bù qǐn, yǐ sī, wú yì, bùrú xué yě. [Pinyin]

     I have been the whole day without eating, and the whole night without sleeping; occupied with thinking. It was of no use. The better plan is to learn.

2. (dialectal Cantonese, Hakka) to drink

   • 食酒愛食竹葉青。 [Sixian Hakka, trad.]
     食酒爱食竹叶青。 [Sixian Hakka, simp.]

     From: 《食酒歌》

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

     If you 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, board games) to capture

   玩盲棋嘅時候，車可以食馬、炮、士、象、卒。 [Cantonese, trad.]
   玩盲棋嘅时候，车可以食马、炮、士、象、卒。 [Cantonese, simp.]

   waan² maang⁴ kei⁴ ge³ si⁴ hau⁶, geoi¹ ho² ji⁵ sik⁶ maa⁵, baau¹, si⁶, zoeng⁶, cyut³. [Jyutping]

   When playing blind chess, a rook can capture knights, cannons, advisors, bishops or pawns.

5. (Cantonese, mahjong) Short for 食糊 (“to win”).
6. (Cantonese, figuratively) to receive; to accept; to absorb

   硬食 [Cantonese]  ―  ngaang⁶ sik⁶ [Jyutping]  ―  (please add an English translation of this example)

7. ^† meal; food
8. ^† edible
9. ^† Alternative form of 蝕／蚀 (shí, “to eat away; to erode”).
10. ^† Alternative form of 蝕／蚀 (shí, “eclipse (of the Sun or Moon)”).

• Cantonese and Hakka regularly use 食 to mean “to eat”, whereas Mandarin uses 吃 (chī).
• When playing mahjong in Cantonese, a player may say this word as a call when winning from another player's discard.

The *s- causative of Etymology 1.

食

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

   • 故孝子不以食其親，忠臣不以食其君。 [Classical Chinese, trad.]
     故孝子不以食其亲，忠臣不以食其君。 [Classical Chinese, simp.]

     From: Mozi, c. 4^th century BCE

     Gù xiàozǐ bù yǐ sì qí qīn, zhōngchén bù yǐ sì qí jūn. [Pinyin]

     Thus a filial son will not feed it (the medicine) to his parent and a loyal minister will not feed it (the medicine) to his king.

Kwok (2018) reconstructs Proto-Southern Min *tsiaʔ⁸ and tentatively reconstructs Proto-Min *dziak (in Norman's system).

While often considered as the vernacular counterpart to etymology 1, it is unlikely to be related to etymology 1 (Norman, 1991; Klöter, 2005; Fuehrer and Yang, 2014). Schuessler (2007) suggests it derives from 嚼 (OC *zewɢ, “to chew”) (probably based on Norman's unpublished manuscripts).