About
The character "饯", whose traditional form is "餞", structurally combines the semantic component 食, indicating food, with the phonetic component 戔, and originally denoted the act of providing a farewell feast. This core meaning of seeing someone off with food and drink extended to general farewell contexts, as seen in the compound "饯行", while also developing a separate application in "蜜饯" for preserved or candied fruits. The simplified form "饯" maintains this phonetic element but replaces the traditional food radical with its simplified counterpart 饣.
Etymology Hide
