零食
líng shí · HSK 4
snacks
🍿🍪 零食 = 零 (odd/bits) + 食 (food) — bits of food between meals
零 means scattered or odd bits (also zero); 食 means food or to eat. Together: scattered bits of food — i.e. snacks. The same 零 shows up in 零钱 (loose change) — small leftover pieces.
零 — rain 雨 + order 令 (phonetic)
A semantic-phonetic compound: 雨 (rain) gives the meaning and 令 supplies the sound. It originally meant scattered drops of falling rain, then extended to 'fragmentary, leftover bits,' and in modern Chinese came to mean 'zero.'