食べる

Japanese
Kanji in this term
食
た
Grade: 2
kun’yomi

Etymology

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]

Older bigrade tabu became modern monograde taberu due to a regular shift in lower bigrade verbs, whereby the older 終止形 (shūshikei, “terminal form”) ending in -u was replaced with the 連体形 (rentaikei, “attributive form”) ending in -eru.

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.”

Pronunciation

Verb

食べる (transitive, ichidan conjugation, hiragana たべる, rōmaji taberu)

  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 (きょ)日 (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
    • 1603–1604, Nippo Jisho (page 594)
      Tabe, uru, eta. タベ, ブル, ベタ (食べ, ぶる, べた) 食う, または, 飲む.

Conjugation
Conjugation of "食べる" (See Appendix:Japanese verbs.)
Stem forms
Imperfective (未然形) 食べ たべ tabe
Continuative (連用形) 食べ たべ tabe
Terminal (終止形) 食べる たべる taberu
Attributive (連体形) 食べる たべる taberu
Hypothetical (仮定形) 食べれ たべれ tabere
Imperative (命令形) 食べよ¹
食べろ²		 たべよ¹
たべろ²		 tabeyo¹
tabero²
Key constructions
Passive 食べられる たべられる taberareru
Causative 食べさせる
食べさす		 たべさせる
たべさす		 tabesaseru
tabesasu
Potential 食べられる
食べれる³		 たべられる
たべれる³		 taberareru
tabereru³
Volitional 食べよう たべよう tabeyō
Negative 食べない
食べぬ
食べん		 たべない
たべぬ
たべん		 tabenai
tabenu
taben
Negative continuative 食べず たべず tabezu
Formal 食べます たべます tabemasu
Perfective 食べた たべた tabeta
Conjunctive 食べて たべて tabete
Hypothetical conditional 食べれば たべれば tabereba
¹ Written imperative
² Spoken imperative
³ Colloquial potential

Synonyms
Synonyms

References
  1. 1988, 国語大辞典（新装版） (Kokugo Dai Jiten, Revised Edition) (in Japanese), Tōkyō: Shogakukan
  2. 2006, 大辞林 (Daijirin), Third Edition (in Japanese), Tōkyō: Sanseidō, →ISBN
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