Explore each form from the oldest known stage to today.
Historical forms are not available yet. The current form is shown as a reference.
The character 飲 (drink) evolved from ancient pictographs showing a person bending over a wine vessel. In oracle bone script, it depicted a person with an open mouth leaning toward a container. The character eventually incorporated the radical 食 (food/eat) with the phonetic component 欠 (originally showing a kneeling person), creating the modern form meaning 'to drink' or 'beverage.' This evolution reflects the cultural importance of drinking rituals in ancient China. Arrived in Japan: The character 飲 likely arrived in Japan during the 5th-6th centuries CE, when the Japanese writing system was developing and adopting Chinese characters (kanji) through cultural exchange with China and the Korean peninsula. It appears in early Japanese texts like the Manyoshu (8th century) and was incorporated into the Japanese language with both on'yomi (Chinese-derived) and kun'yomi (Japanese-native) readings.