弁当

Japanese

A typical bento
A homemade bento
Kanji in this term
べん
Grade: 5
とう
Grade: 2
goon

Etymology

/bentau//bentɔː//bentoː/

Borrowed from Mandarin 便當 (biàndang, convenient).

The use of for ben is an example of phonetic ateji (当て字), due to 便 having another sense of "human excrement'.

Pronunciation

Noun

弁当 (shinjitai kanji, kyūjitai kanji 辨當, hiragana べんとう, rōmaji bentō, historical hiragana べんたう)

  1. food brought on the go
  2. bento (takeaway lunch served in a box)
  3. This term needs a translation to English. Please help out and add a translation, then remove the text {{rfdef}}.
  4. (law) Synonym of 執行猶予 (shikkō yūyo): a suspended sentence

Derived terms

Idioms

  •  (べん) (とう)使 (つか) (bentō o tsukau, use a bentoeat a bento)

Descendants

References

  1. 2006, 大辞林 (Daijirin), Third Edition (in Japanese), Tōkyō: Sanseidō, →ISBN
  • 2002, Ineko Kondō; Fumi Takano; Mary E Althaus; et. al., Shogakukan Progressive Japanese-English Dictionary, Third Edition, Tokyo: Shōgakukan, →ISBN.
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