# Radical 184

Radical 184 or radical eat (食部) meaning "eat" or "food" is one of the 11 Kangxi radicals (214 radicals in total) composed of 9 strokes.
In the Kangxi Dictionary, there are 403 characters (out of 49,030) to be found under this radical.
食 is also the 185th indexing component in the Table of Indexing Chinese Character Components predominantly adopted by Simplified Chinese dictionaries published in mainland China, with the simplified left component form 饣 and its traditional form 飠 listed as its associated indexing components.

## Evolution

* Oracle bone script character
* Bronze script character
* Large seal script character
* Small seal script character

## Derived characters

| Strokes | Characters (食飠) | Characters (饣) |
| +0 | 食 飠$^{Component}$ | 饣$^{SCcomponent}$ (=飠) |
| +2 | 飡 (=餐) 飢 飣 飤 (=飼) | 饤$^{SC}$ (=飣) 饥$^{SC}$ (=飢) |
| +3 | 飥 飦 飧 飨$^{SC}$ (=饗) | 饦$^{SC}$ (=飥) 饧$^{SC}$ (=餳) |
| +4 | 飩 飪 飫 飬 飭 飮 (=飲) 飯 飰 (=飯) 飱 (=飧) 飲 | 饨$^{SC}$ (=飩) 饩$^{SC}$ (=餼) 饪$^{SC}$ (=飪) 饫$^{SC}$ (=飫) 饬$^{SC}$ (=飭) 饭$^{SC}$ (=飯) 饮$^{SC}$ (=飲) |
| +5 | 飳 飴 飵 飶 飷 飸 (=饕) 飹 飻 飼 飽 飾 飿 | 饯$^{SC}$ (=餞) 饰$^{SC}$ (=飾) 饱$^{SC}$ (=飽) 饲$^{SC}$ (=飼) 饳$^{SC}$ (=飿) 饴$^{SC}$ (=飴) |
| +6 | 飺 餀 餁 (=飪) 餂 餃 餄 餅 餆 餇 餈 (=糍 -> 米) 餉 養 餋 餌 餍$^{SC}$ (=饜) 餎 餏 | 饵$^{SC}$ (=餌) 饶$^{SC}$ (=饒) 饷$^{SC}$ (=餉) 饸$^{SC}$ (=餄) 饹$^{SC}$ (=餎) 饺$^{SC}$ (=餃) 饻$^{SC}$ (=餏) 饼$^{SC}$ (=餅) |
| +7 | 餐 餑 餒 餓 餔 餕 餖 餗 餘 餙 餝 | 饽$^{SC}$ (=餑) 饾$^{SC}$ (=餖) 饿$^{SC}$ (=餓) 馀$^{SC}$ (=餘) 馁$^{SC}$ (=餒) 馂$^{SC}$ (=餕) |
| +8 | 餚 餛 餜 餞 餟 餠 (=餅) 餡 餢 餣 餤 餥 餦 餧 (=餵) 館 餩 | 馃$^{SC}$ (=餜) 馄$^{SC}$ (=餛) 馅$^{SC}$ (=餡) 馆$^{SC}$ (=館) |
| +9 | 餪 餫 餬 (=糊 -> 米) 餭 餮 餯 餰 餱 餲 餳 餴 餵 餷 | 馇$^{SC}$ (=餷) 馈$^{SC}$ (=饋) 馊$^{SC}$ (=餿) 馋$^{SC}$ (=饞) |
| +10 | 餶 餸 餹 (=糖 -> 米) 餺 餻 (=糕 -> 米) 餼 餽 餾 餿 饀 饁 饂 饃 | 馉$^{SC}$ (=餶) 馌$^{SC}$ (=饁) 馍$^{SC}$ (=饃) 馎$^{SC}$ (=餺) 馏$^{SC}$ (=餾) 馐$^{SC}$ (=饈) |
| +11 | 饄 (=糖 -> 米) 饅 饆 饇 饈 饉 | 馑$^{SC}$ (=饉) 馒$^{SC}$ (=饅) |
| +12 | 饊 饋 饌 饍 (=膳 -> 肉) 饎 饏 饐 饑 饒 饓 | 馓$^{SC}$ (=饊) 馔$^{SC}$ (=饌) |
| +13 | 饔 饕 饖 饗 饘 饙 | |
| +14 | 饚 饛 饜 | |
| +16 | 饝 (=饃) | |
| +17 | 饞 饟 (=餉) | |
| +19 | 饠 饡 | |
| +22 | 饢 | 馕$^{SC}$ (=饢) |

## Variant forms

This radical character has different forms in different languages when used as an individual character and as a component.
Traditionally, when used as an individual character, its third stroke is printed as either a horizontal line (食) or a vertical line (食), but more often written as a slanted dot (食); when used as a left component, it is usually printed as 𩙿 and written as 飠 in regular script.
In China, xin zixing adopted the handwritten form 食 and 飠 and applies it also to printing typefaces. This change is applied chiefly to Traditional Chinese publications in mainland China; the left component form 飠 was already replaced by the simplified form 饣 prior to the printing typeface reform. Taiwan's Standard Form of National Characters and Hong Kong's List of Graphemes of Commonly-Used Chinese Characters use 食 and 飠 (the third stroke is horizontal) as the standard forms, while other alternative forms (e.g. 食/𩙿, 食/飠) are still rather prevalent in publishing.
In modern Japanese, 食 (third stroke is horizontal) and 𩙿 are seen as the traditional/orthodox forms. The shinjitai reform changed the third stroke in 食 as an individual character or as a non-left component to a short horizontal line (食); changed the left component form 𩙿 to 飠. In principle, these changes apply only to jōyō kanji (more specifically, jōyō kanji before 2010 revision; some characters added in 2010 were not simplified); the traditional form is used for hyōgai kanji.
| Kangxi Dict. Korean | Japanese | Trad. Chinese (TW, HK, MO) | Trad. Chinese (Mainland China) | Simp. Chinese |
| 食 | 食 | 食 | 食 | 食 |
| 飼 | 飼 | 飼 | 飼 | 饲 |
| 饉 | 饉 | 饉 | 饉 | 馑 |
| 饕 | 饕 | 饕 | 饕 | 饕 |

## Literature

* Fazzioli, Edoardo (1987). Chinese calligraphy : from pictograph to ideogram : the history of 214 essential Chinese/Japanese characters. calligraphy by Rebecca Hon Ko. New York: Abbeville Press. ISBN 0-89659-774-1.