夕 = a modified form of the "moon" character in Chinese: 月.
飯. literally means "cooked rice". It's usually used in Chinese to mean any meal of the day.
食 as a verb [from ancient Chinese, which is still retained in Japanese, but this meaning is rarely used in Mandarin. Since Japanese borrowed from so many Chinese dialects, it's hard to trace the origin. Other Chinese dialects, such as Cantonese, etc... still use this meaning] means "To eat". As a noun, it means "food", whereas its equivalent = 食物 in Mandarin.
夕食 = literally means "Eat by the moon" = Having a meal late at night = dinner.
夕飯 = literally means "Rice by the moon" = meal eaten late at night = dinner
晩ご飯 = meal that's eaten late in the day AKA "dinner" in English. ご飯, go-han, is a respectful form of 飯, meshi. It's simply 晩飯 in Chinese.
I lived in Japan for 12 years together with my Japanese wife, but I never heard yuuhan. Most common is "bangohan" which is used in daily conversation. Meshi 飯 means meal, not dinner. Yuushoku is used when you write about dinner.
Edit:
There might be regions in Japan, where yuuhan is used and others where bangohan is used.
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Verified answer
From Chinese:
晩 = night
夕 = a modified form of the "moon" character in Chinese: 月.
飯. literally means "cooked rice". It's usually used in Chinese to mean any meal of the day.
食 as a verb [from ancient Chinese, which is still retained in Japanese, but this meaning is rarely used in Mandarin. Since Japanese borrowed from so many Chinese dialects, it's hard to trace the origin. Other Chinese dialects, such as Cantonese, etc... still use this meaning] means "To eat". As a noun, it means "food", whereas its equivalent = 食物 in Mandarin.
夕食 = literally means "Eat by the moon" = Having a meal late at night = dinner.
夕飯 = literally means "Rice by the moon" = meal eaten late at night = dinner
晩ご飯 = meal that's eaten late in the day AKA "dinner" in English. ご飯, go-han, is a respectful form of 飯, meshi. It's simply 晩飯 in Chinese.
I lived in Japan for 12 years together with my Japanese wife, but I never heard yuuhan. Most common is "bangohan" which is used in daily conversation. Meshi 飯 means meal, not dinner. Yuushoku is used when you write about dinner.
Edit:
There might be regions in Japan, where yuuhan is used and others where bangohan is used.
å¤é£ããæ©ã飯ããå¤é£¯ just mean dinner.
飯 means food and meal.
We have a lot of words that stand for dinner,
å¤é£(ããããã)ï¼å¤å¾¡é£¯(ãããã¯ã)ï¼å¤é£¯(ãããã)ï¼å¤é£¯(ããã¯ã)ï¼
å¤é¤(ããã)ï¼æ©å¾¡é£¯(ã°ããã¯ã)ï¼æ©é£¯(ã°ããã)ï¼æ©é¤(ã°ããã)ï¼ãã£ãã¼
http://dictionary.goo.ne.jp/leaf/thsrs/5761/m0u/
Those words all mean dinner.
Suffice to say , æ©ã飯ãis the most polite way of saying dinner, because it has a word ã=御. 御 is used for formal lines.
That web page explains å¤é£¯ is not used nowadays , but I use it.