午饭
wǔ fàn · HSK 1
lunch
🍱 午饭 = noon + meal (rice/food)
午 means noon (the midday hour) and 饭 means cooked rice or a meal more broadly. Together 午饭 literally reads noon-meal, i.e. lunch. Compare 早饭 morning-meal (breakfast) and 晚饭 evening-meal (dinner).
饭 — food radical 飠/饣 + 反 fǎn (phonetic)
A semantic-phonetic compound. The left side 饣 (simplified from 飠, 'eat/food') gives the meaning, while 反 on the right hints at the sound. Originally referring to cooked grain, it broadened to mean cooked rice and, by extension, a meal in general.