The etymology of 食 is a bit more complex than that. It's ancient chinese that combined an upside down mouth: 亼 (best approximation) and a bowl of rice. This is

The etymology of 食 is a bit more complex than that. It's ancient chinese that combined an upside down mouth: 亼 (best approximation) and a bowl of rice. This is the 甲骨文 version: http://imgur.com/NRBoG7F http://imgur.com/NRBoG7F. Cute eh? It looks like someone nomnomnoming a bowl of rice. EDIT: found another one: http://imgur.com/BsQsNBb http://imgur.com/BsQsNBb