<p>In my opinion, there are no similar origins or any historical connections between these two words.</p>

<ul>
<li>宴 means 宴请 here. It's a verb. And the word 宴席 is also a modern Chinese word widely used in our daily life.</li>
<li>筵 means 竹席. You can find it's composed with 竹 on top, so apparently it is a noun. 筵席 is more or less too formal and ancient for daily use. I will never use it except the old saying 天下没有不散的筵席.</li>
</ul>

<p>Your analysis is also reasonable. It seems just a coincidence. </p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2015-03-26T22:14:36.020Z
2015-03-26T22:14:36.020Z
Han
<p>宴席 and 筵席:</p>

<p><strong>I know what both words mean</strong>, and I think it's quite funny they have similar pronunciations with quite similar meanings (give or take on both).</p>

<ul>
<li><p>Do the two words have similar origins?</p></li>
<li><p>Any historical connections?</p></li>
</ul>

<p>宴 Middle Chinese: <em>‘enH</em></p>

<p>筵 Middle Chinese: <em>yen</em></p>

<p>It would be easy to assume they don't have much connection based on their Middle Chinese pronunciations. Quite peculiar anyhow.</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2015-03-26T17:49:30.937Z
Not a critique on the question but the site - since we don't have separate sites like ELL and EL&U, I think we need more distinguishable tags at least, or many would misread the question as a simple meaning/usage differentiation.
NS.X.
<history>
Any historical connection between 筵席 and 宴席?
# Any historical connection between 筵席 and 宴席?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2015-03-26)

宴席 and 筵席:

**I know what both words mean**, and I think it's quite funny they have similar pronunciations with quite similar meanings (give or take on both).

* Do the two words have similar origins?
* Any historical connections?

宴 Middle Chinese: *‘enH*

筵 Middle Chinese: *yen*

It would be easy to assume they don't have much connection based on their Middle Chinese pronunciations. Quite peculiar anyhow.

**Tags:** history

> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: Not a critique on the question but the site - since we don't have separate sites like ELL and EL&U, I think we need more distinguishable tags at least, or many would misread the question as a simple meaning/usage differentiation.  

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## 1 answers

### Answer by username_2 on 2015-03-26. Score: 2 | Accepted answer

In my opinion, there are no similar origins or any historical connections between these two words.

* 宴 means 宴请 here. It's a verb. And the word 宴席 is also a modern Chinese word widely used in our daily life.
* 筵 means 竹席. You can find it's composed with 竹 on top, so apparently it is a noun. 筵席 is more or less too formal and ancient for daily use. I will never use it except the old saying 天下没有不散的筵席.

Your analysis is also reasonable. It seems just a coincidence.


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