食 (shí): food; provisions

Meanings

1 food; provisions
2 to eat (literary)
3 eclipse (as in 日食)

Characters

食

shí

food; to eat

Examples

民以食为天。

Mínyǐshíwéitiān.

Food is the most important thing for the people.

中国的美食闻名世界。

Zhōngguó de měishí wénmíng shìjiè.

Chinese cuisine is famous worldwide.

食堂的饭不错。

Shítáng de fàn búcuò.

The cafeteria food is pretty good.

Tips

usage

食 appears in 食物 (food), 美食 (fine food), 食堂 (cafeteria), 零食 (snacks). As a radical it usually takes the left-side form 饣 (饭, 饿, 馆).

history

Classical Chinese has a causative reading sì meaning 'to feed (a person or animal),' as in the line 食马者 ('the one who feeds the horse'). Modern Chinese splits this off into the separate character 饲, so the everyday reading of 食 is just shí.

Components

pictograph

食 shí

food; eat

食 pictures a covered grain vessel: the upper triangular shape is the lid, the body below holds the food. It originally meant 'food in a pot' and by extension 'to eat.' As Kangxi radical it is highly productive, almost always written as 饣 on the left in modern characters (饭, 馆, 饿).

Radical

Food Kangxi #184

One of the most productive food-and-eating radicals. Built on a covered grain vessel, 食 indexes everything to do with meals, hunger, fullness, and the kitchen, but it almost always appears in its left-position variants 饣 (simplified) or 飠 (traditional): 饭, 饺, 饿, 饱, 馆, 饮. Free-standing 食 is more literary.

Forms

食 shí

Default 6 characters

饣 shízìpáng

Left 38 characters

飠 shí

Left 0 characters