Dong Chinese dictionary

yǐn, yìn

drink

Pictograph of a person with an open mouth (欠) drinking from a wine vessel (酉). 欠 also represents the sound. The 酉 (wine) component and the open mouth was later reanalyzed as 飠 (eat).

Components

飠 Iconic component

shí

eat

飠 is a component form of 食. Used here to depict an open mouth drinking from a wine vessel (酉). Later reanalyzed as 飠 (eat).

欠 Sound Iconic component

qiàn

yawn, deficient

Depicts a person bending over with their mouth open.

飲 and 欠 don't sound similar in modern Mandarin due to historical phonetic changes. They were more similar in older Chinese.飲 /*q(r)[u]mʔ/, /*q(r)[ə]mʔ-s/
欠 /*[k]ʰ(r)om-s/

Evolution