bento box

See also: bentō box

English

WOTD – 29 April 2025

Etymology

From bento +‎ box. Bento is borrowed from Japanese 弁(べん)当(とう) (bentō, “food to be eaten on the go; takeaway lunch served in a box”).

Pronunciation

Noun

bento box (plural bento boxes)

  2. A partitioned, traditionally lacquered, lunchbox in which a bento (“Japanese takeaway lunch”) is served.
    Synonym: bento
    Hypernyms: box, lunchbox
    • 1895 April, Alfred Parsons, “Autumn in Japan”, in Harper’s Monthly Magazine, volume XC, number DXXXIX, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers, […], →OCLC, page 772, column 2:
      My heart was filled with covetousness as I saw the fine old lacquer bento boxes which they produced after carefully removing many silk wrappings.
    • 1918 March 7, Lloyd Balderston, “Children’s Corner. Letters from Japan.”, in J. Henry Bartlett, editor, The Friend. A Religious and Literary Journal, volume 92, number 19, Philadelphia, Pa.: [s.n.], →OCLC, page 233, column 1:
      At every important station, boys walk along the platform carrying large trays and shouting "Bento," (prolong the o). The hungry traveler opens the window and buys a neat parcel, consisting of two wooden boxes and a long narrow envelope [containing chopsticks]. […] One of the wooden boxes is full of cold boiled rice. The other contains an assortment of things, usually including fish and pickles. To name the contents of a bento box and tell what each thing is made of requires an extensive knowledge of Japanese cookery.
    • 1918 April 13, “Fearless Japanese official”, in The Evening Examiner, volume LX, number 87, Peterborough, Ont.: [Peterborough Examiner], →ISSN, →OCLC, page 6, column 3:
      Of all the eccentric characters in Japan, one of the most famous and distinguished is probably Viscount Dr. Inajiro Tajiri, president of the imperial board of audit. […] His food is of the simplest variety. He daily carries to the office a bento box filled with rice and some pickled plums, and during the past 40 years he has ever stuck to his Spartan lunch.
    • 1935, George F. Pierrot, “The Great Buddha among the Cherry Blossoms”, in The Vagabond Trail: Around the World in 100 Days, New York, N.Y.; London: D[aniel] Appleton-Century Company, →OCLC, pages 139–140:
      For twenty cents apiece, Kato bought us three bento boxes. They are oblong and shallow, and made of thin, light-colored wood. One part contained hot rice, another cold vegetables, meats, broiled fish, a bit of omelette, and pickled sea-weed. Chopsticks came with it.
    • 2002 September, William Weathersby, Jr., “At the W Hotel in Times Square, Designer Yabu Pushelberg Creates Spare, Richly Textured Compartments, Evoking a Bento Box’s Sensual Delights”, in Robert Ivy, editor, Architectural Record, volume 190, number 9, New York, N.Y.: The McGraw-Hill Companies, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 155, column 1:
      Replacing a mass-appeal menu, the hotel's interiors now suit subtler tastes. Like a lacquered bento box, the Zenlike hotel offers an array of delights imbued with natural color and texture, all contained in interlocking enclosures. It's a sampler of varied moods, functions, and materials—spare vignettes forming a harmonious whole.
    • 2016, Eric C. Rath, “The Making of the Modern Boxed Lunch”, in Japan’s Cuisines: Food, Place and Identity, London: Reaktion Books, →ISBN, page 106:
      Other bentō boxes are made like Russian dolls: five separate boxes that fit snugly inside one another for storage. The workmanship of bentō boxes shows the pride that their owners placed in these containers and in creating the proper ambiance when taking a prepared meal on trips outside the home.
    • 2018, Eiko Maruko Siniawer, “Living the Good Life?”, in Waste: Consuming Postwar Japan, Ithaca, N.Y.; London: Cornell University Press, →ISBN, part III (Abundant Dualities: Wealth and Its Discontents in the 1980s and Beyond), pages 200–201:
      Without waste or excess, Kōsuke's daily life was one of material sparseness and deep contentedness. […] He made use of empty bentō boxes, and soap and shampoo left by someone at the public bath, repurposed an empty milk carton as a flower vase, and repaired objects that were broken.
    • 2023, Matthieu Pinon, Laurent Lefebvre, “Thematic Pages”, in A History of Modern Manga (1952–2022), San Rafael, Calif.: Insight Editions, →ISBN, page 180:
      Home-cooked food is all the more prized by the Japanese, especially in its presentation, whether on the dinner table or in the bentō box (a personalized, compartmentalized lunch box).
  3. Synonym of bento (“a Japanese takeaway lunch served in a box”).
    Hypernyms: box lunch, (especially Asia) lunchbox, packed lunch
    • 1994 September, Fred Ferretti, “A Gourmet at Large: Lone Star Chefs and Cookbook Pleasures”, in Gail Zweigenthal, editor, Gourmet: The Magazine of Good Living, volume LIV, number 9, New York, N.Y.: Condé Nast Publications, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 3, columns 1–2:
      [M]arvelous vegetable sushi—slivers of cucumber and carrot and threads of ginger rolled in cooked rice, then in leaves of seaweed and dusted with roasted white sesame seeds—which I ate one evening at Anzu, a restaurant that serves, to Dallas's satisfaction, its bento boxes with a Texas twang.
    • 2005, “Destination Edmonton [Lodgings & Restaurants]”, in TourBook: Western Canada & Alaska […], Heathrow, Fla.: AAA Publishing, →OCLC, page 420:
      NAGANO […] Bento boxes are a great value, and there is a full sushi bar as well.
    • 2024 December 27, Christian Wolmar, “A Mix of Modern and Traditional on Board the Shinkansen”, in Rail, number 1025, Peterborough, Cambridgeshire: Bauer Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 40:
      At the time there were dining cars, and bento boxes were sold on board for those not using the restaurant. Today, sadly, no bento boxes (the meal in a box with chopsticks and a large selection of tasty morsels with enough rice to ensure a full stomach) are available on the trains. […] Until last year, the famous bento boxes were dispensed from trolleys by friendly waitresses on the trains. But they now have to be bought at the station kiosks.

Alternative forms

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Further reading

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