飧 (sūn): supper; evening meal

Meanings

盘飧市远无兼味。

Pán sūn shì yuǎn wú jiān wèi.

Far from the market, the meal at home has no second dish.

谁知盘中飧，粒粒皆辛苦。

Shéi zhī pán zhōng sūn, lì lì jiē xīnkǔ.

Who knows that every grain of the meal in the bowl is hard-won toil.

history

A literary word for the evening meal, built from 夕 (dusk) over 食 (food). It appears in Du Fu's line 盘飧市远.

radical

食 shí

food; to eat

The food radical supplies the "meal" half; together with 夕 the character pictures an evening meal.

semantic

夕 xī

evening; dusk

The dusk element on the left supplies the "evening" half of the idea: a meal eaten when the sun has gone down.

飧 sūn