About
馐 (xiū), the simplified form of 饈, is a formal noun meaning delicacies or a feast. It is a phono-semantic compound. The left component 饣, derived from the food radical 食 (shí), places it in the semantic category of eating and nourishment. The right component 羞 (xiū) provides the pronunciation and originally carried a related semantic nuance of presenting food to superiors or guests, before 羞 itself shifted primarily to mean shame. In modern Chinese, 馐 rarely appears alone, typically occurring in compound words like 珍馐 (zhēnxiū), meaning rare delicacies.