The word 饭店 is formed by combining two meaningful characters: 饭 (fàn), which means "cooked rice" or more generally "a meal", and 店 (diàn), which means "shop" or "establishment". Together, they create a compound concept where the first element specifies the type of commodity or service (a meal) and the second element specifies the type of place (a commercial establishment), resulting in the overall meaning of "a shop that sells meals", i.e., a restaurant or, in some contexts, a hotel that includes a restaurant.