食べる

From earlier Old Japanese form 食ぶ (tabu, “to (humbly) receive or get”, from a superior), a verb with the 下二段 (shimo nidan) or lower bigrade conjugation pattern. This was the humble form of 賜ぶ, 給ぶ (tabu, “to (deign to) give”, to an inferior), a verb with the full 四段 (yodan) or quadrigrade conjugation pattern.^[1][2]

Most likely cognate with 給う (tamau, “to give”, as a superior gives a thing to, or does something for, an inferior).

Compare the historical development of meaning from “to humbly receive” → “to eat”, with the modern use of the humble verb 頂く (itadaku, “to receive”) just before eating, in a sense of “I humbly receive this food.”

• (Tokyo) たべる (Nakadaka – )^[2]
• IPA^(key):

食(た)べる • (taberu) transitive ichidan (stem 食(た)べ (tabe), past 食(た)べた (tabeta))

1. to eat

   ご飯(はん)を食(た)べる

   go-han o taberu

   to eat a meal

   箸(はし)で食(た)べる

   hashi de taberu

   to eat with chopsticks

   今日(きょう)は、寿(す)司(し)を食(た)べに銀(ぎん)座(ざ)に行(い)きます。

   Kyō wa, sushi o tabe ni Ginza ni ikimasu.

   I'll go to Ginza today to eat sushi.

   食(た)べていくために

   tabeteiku tame ni

   in order to make a living (lit. in order to keep eating)

2. (archaic, humble) to eat or drink
   • 1603, Vocabvlario da Lingoa de Iapam (Nippo Jisho) (in Portuguese), Nagasaki, page 594:

     Tabe, uru, eta. タベ, ブル, ベタ (食べ, ぶる, べた) 食う, または, 飲む.

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

• Doi, Tadao (1603–1604) Hōyaku Nippo Jisho (in Japanese), Tōkyō: Iwanami Shoten, published 1980, →ISBN.