飯

飯 U+FA2A, 飯 CJK COMPATIBILITY IDEOGRAPH-FA2A ← 﨩 CJK Compatibility Ideographs 飼 →

Translingual

Stroke order

Han character

飯 (Kangxi radical 184, 食+4, 13 strokes in Chinese, 12 strokes in Japanese, cangjie input 人戈竹水 (OIHE), four-corner 8174₇, composition ⿰飠反(GHTJV) or ⿰𩙿反(K))

Derived characters

• 𪾗

References

• Kangxi Dictionary: page 1417, character 27
• Dai Kanwa Jiten: character 44064
• Dae Jaweon: page 1941, character 21
• Hanyu Da Zidian (first edition): volume 7, page 4444, character 5
• Unihan data for U+98EF

• Unihan data for U+FA2A

Chinese

Wikipedia has articles on:

• 飯 (Cantonese)
• 飯 (Gan)

Glyph origin

Historical forms of the character 飯
Western Zhou	Warring States	Shuowen Jiezi (compiled in Han)
Bronze inscriptions	Chu slip and silk script	Small seal script

Phono-semantic compound (形聲／形声, OC *bonʔ, *bons) : semantic 食 (“food”) + phonetic 反 (OC *panʔ, *pʰan).

Etymology 1

Compare Proto-Mon-Khmer *puuŋ (“cooked rice”), whence Mon ပုၚ် (pɜŋ, “cooked rice”) (Ferlus, 1988).

Pronunciation 1 is the exopassive derivation of pronunciation 2, meaning "what is eaten" (Schuessler, 2007).

Pronunciation 1

Definitions

飯

1. any cooked grain (rice, millet, etc.)

   小米飯／小米饭  ―  xiǎomǐ fàn  ―  cooked millet

2. (particularly) cooked rice (Classifier: 碗 m c h mn)

   糯米飯／糯米饭 [Cantonese]  ―  no⁶ mai⁵ faan⁶   ―  (cooked) sticky rice

   你要吃飯還是吃麵？ [MSC, trad.]
   你要吃饭还是吃面？ [MSC, simp.]

   Nǐ yào chī fàn háishì chī miàn?

   Do you want to eat rice or noodles?

3. meal (Classifier: 頓／顿 m mn; 餐 m c)

   早飯／早饭  ―  zǎofàn  ―  breakfast

4. (dialectal) noodles
5. (Mainland China Hokkien) egg clusters shaped like rice balls (of some animals)

Synonyms

Pronunciation 2

Definitions

飯

1. (obsolete) to eat

   • 舜之飯糗茹草也，若將終身焉。 [Classical Chinese, trad.]
     舜之饭糗茹草也，若将终身焉。 [Classical Chinese, simp.]

     From: Mencius, c. 4^th century BCE

     Shùn zhī fàn qiǔ rú cǎo yě, ruò jiāng zhōngshēn yān.

     Shun's manner of eating his parched grain and herbs was as if he were to be doing so all his life.

2. (obsolete) to give food to; to let someone eat; to feed

   • 有一母見信飢，飯信。 [Classical Chinese, trad.]
     有一母见信饥，饭信。 [Classical Chinese, simp.]

     From: The Records of the Grand Historian, by Sima Qian, c. 91 BCE

     Yǒu yī mǔ jiàn Xìn jī, fàn Xìn.

     A woman saw that Han Xin was hungry, and thus gave him food to eat.

Compounds

Etymology 2

Borrowed from English fan. Doublet of 粉絲／粉丝 (fěnsī).

Pronunciation

Definitions

飯

1. (neologism, slang) fans

Synonyms

Compounds

References

• “飯”, in 漢語多功能字庫 (Multi-function Chinese Character Database)‎, 香港中文大學 (the Chinese University of Hong Kong), 2014–
• “Entry #9249”, in 臺灣閩南語常用詞辭典 (overall work in Mandarin and Hokkien), Ministry of Education, R.O.C., 2023.

Japanese

Shinjitai	飯
Kyūjitai	飯 飯 or 飯+︀?
	飯󠄀 飯+󠄀? (Adobe-Japan1)
	飯󠄄 飯+󠄄? (Hanyo-Denshi) (Moji_Joho)
The displayed kanji may be different from the image due to your environment. See here for details.

Kanji

(grade 4 “Kyōiku” kanji, shinjitai kanji, kyūjitai form 飯)

1. cooked grains (rice, etc.)
2. meal

Readings

• Go-on: ぼん (bon, 飯)
• Kan-on: はん (han, 飯)
• Kun: いい (ii, 飯)^{←いひ (ifi, 飯, historical)}; くらう (kurau, 飯らう)^{←くらふ (kurafu, 飯らふ, historical)}; くらわす (kurawasu, 飯らわす)^{←くらはす (kurafasu, 飯らはす, historical)}; まま (mama, 飯); まんま (manma, 飯); めし (meshi, 飯, Jōyō)
• Nanori: いい (ii, 飯)

Compounds

Etymology 1

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key):

Noun

飯(はん) • (han) 

1. This term needs a translation to English. Please help out and add a translation, then remove the text {{rfdef}}.

Etymology 2

⟨ipi₁⟩ → */ipʲi/ → /ifi/ → /iwi/ → /iː/

From Old Japanese, also used as 借音 (shakuon) kana for ⟨pi₁⟩.

Noun

飯(いい) • (ii) ^{←いひ (ifi)?}

1. (archaic) cooked grains, especially cooked rice

Derived terms

• See Japanese terms spelled with 飯 read as いい

Proper noun

飯(いい) • (Ii) ^{←いひ (ifi)?}

1. a surname

Etymology 3

The 連用形 (ren'yōkei, “stem or continuative form”) of verb 召す (mesu, “to call”).

Pronunciation

• (Tokyo) めし​ (Odaka – )
• IPA^(key):

Noun

飯(めし) • (meshi) 

1. cooked grains, especially cooked rice
2. (informal) a meal

   飯(めし)を食(く)う

   meshi o kuu

   eat a meal

Usage notes

This is an informal way to refer to food, and 食う (kuu) is a correspondingly informal way to say "eat".

Derived terms

• See Japanese terms spelled with 飯 read as めし

Proper noun

飯(めし) • (Meshi) 

1. a surname

Etymology 4

Clipping of 旨旨 (umauma, “food”, baby talk).

Pronunciation

• (Tokyo) ま​ま (Atamadaka – )
• IPA^(key):

Noun

飯(まま) • (mama) 

1. (Tsugaru) cooked rice
2. (childish) Alternative form of 飯 (manma)

Derived terms

• 飯借り (mamakari)
• 飯事 (mamagoto)
• 飯子菜 (mamakona)
• 飯焚き (mamataki)

Etymology 5

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

Compare Korean 맘마 (mamma).

Pronunciation

• (Tokyo) ま​んま (Atamadaka – )
• IPA^(key):

Noun

飯(まんま) or 飯(まま) • (manma or mama) 

1. (childish) cooked rice

Derived terms

• 赤飯 (aka manma), 赤の飯 (aka no manma)
• 御飯 (o-manma)
• 猫飯 (neko manma)

References

Korean

Hanja

飯 (eumhun 밥 반 (bap ban))

1. Hanja form^? of 반 (“meal, rice”).

Compounds

• 飯饌 (반찬, banchan)
• 白飯 (백반, baekban)

Vietnamese

Han character

飯: Hán Nôm readings: phạn, phằn

1. rice

References