I understand both are vulgar male forms of eat, but why these two kanji are basically the same? What means that 口 in there?
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(口+食)遼の僧行均の「龍龕手鑑」に「喰音は餐{さん}又は音孫{そん}」とあって、飱{そん}の音がある。「新撰字鏡」に「喰、飲食を受けるなり、[波牟]{はむ}」とあり、我が国ではよく用いられた字である。① くう、くらう ② 飲食を受ける。(字源より)For what is worth the 喰 entry of a jigen dictionary. – 永劫回帰 Dec 24 '15 at 8:43
The earliest appearances of 喰 in dictionaries are, as @変幻出没 said, those in 龍龕手鏡(龍龕手鑑) or 新撰字鏡, but their definitions are not much same as today's. The meaning they suggested is like "dine", "dinner" or "have a meal" and likely to be a variant of 飧.
In more recent usages 喰 explicitly represents くう and くらう, contrary to 食 can also be read たべる or はむ. I'm not sure if the kanji was recycled or reinvented, but it certainly had some usefulness because pre-modern orthography rarely used okurigana, making it difficult to distinguish certain homographs. In this sense, you can also say that 喰 has already lost its reason for existence, but it's still in use, especially when you want more "bite and booze" feeling or violent "consuming, devouring" implications.
Dictionary says 喰 is made in Japan to emphasize the action of eating by adding 口 next to 食.
The difference of two kanjj is that 食 is a kanji designated for everyday use and 喰 isn't that, so we mostly use 食. The difference of meaning is little, so if you use only 食, it is no problem.
口 means mouth. Since Kanji is ideogram, both have 食 that means eating and food. Other kanjis related to food/eating also have 食:
- 飯 (rice) http://kanji.jitenon.jp/kanjib/592.html
- 飲 (drink) http://kanji.jitenon.jp/kanji/249.html
- 飢 (starvation) http://kanji.jitenon.jp/kanjid/1649.html
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Yeah, I get that, but what does it means all together? What's the difference? – Jaime Dec 24 '15 at 4:39
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1There aren't so much difference in meaning (If you see dictionary, both are written on the same page: dictionary.goo.ne.jp/jn/60257/meaning/m0u). However, what you see normally is 食. 喰 was invented in Japan and it emphasizes the action of eating: ja.wiktionary.org/wiki/%E5%96%B0 – user51966 Dec 24 '15 at 4:43
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1The action of eating itself. I think we use 喰 only in special contexts, such as the title of the books/movies, so in daily life, you would rarely use 喰. – user51966 Dec 24 '15 at 4:54
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1@h2so5 Wiktionary says so, but I think there is no fundamental difference between 食 and 喰 as Goo Dictionary juxtaposes both (dictionary.goo.ne.jp/jn/60257/meaning/m0u/%E9%A3%9F%E3%81%86). Another website also discusses this issue, and the top answer doesn't see clear difference between them: detail.chiebukuro.yahoo.co.jp/qa/question_detail/q119354866 – user51966 Dec 24 '15 at 5:42