Ideogram (指事). Originally, it was a variant form of井 (“water well”). The dot (丶) represents the shape of the well’s pulley bucket. By extension, it is used to signify the sound of something being thrown into a well.[1]
During theEdo period, restaurants specializing in large portions were called慳貪屋(kendon'ya), from慳貪(kendon,“greedy”,in reference to “very hungry”) +屋(ya,“house, store, restaurant”). The servingbowls were called慳貪振り鉢(kendon-buri-bachi), literally “greedy” + “in that fashion” + “bowl”. Theken portion waselided, producingdonburi-bachi, and then the-hachi was dropped to producedonburi.
Alternatively, and perhaps more likely,donburi in reference to “a bowl filled with large amount of food” may be cognate withどんぶり(donburi), anonomatopoeia of something heavyplunking into deep water, or something big and softplopping down, related toonomatopoeiaどぶり(doburi),どぶん(dobun),どんぶ(donbu), andどん(don), all of generally similar meanings. The food starts with a large portion of rice, also referred to as丼飯(donburi meshi), which could be analyzed as “plopped-down rice”.
Donburi is also used to refer to something “rough, approximate, not finely worked”, as in the phrase丼勘定(donburi kanjō,“rough approximation, loose estimate”). This is consistent with a derivation from the onomatopoeia, but not from the restaurant terms.
The kanji spelling shows井(“a well”) with a dot in the center, possibly indicating something thrown into the well. This could suggest that theMiddle Chinese readingtomX may similarly derive fromonomatopoeia.
Todisambiguate, speakers may refer more specifically todonburibachi for the bowl, anddonburi mono for the food.
English-language sources often refer to the food as similar tostew served over rice. Note, however, that stews consist of meat, fish, and/or vegetables cooked in a liquid and served with the sauce, whereas donburitoppings may be relatively dry, as intempura donburi orbeef donburi, or even uncooked, as intekkadon (tunasashimi donburi).
