宴

• Noun: A feast, banquet, or formal dinner.
• Transitive Verb: To host, entertain, or receive guests (often with political or diplomatic overtones).
• Intransitive Verb/State: To be at peace, to rest, or to settle into quietude; stability or the cessation of conflict.

The movement between noun and verb is fluid. The glyph may describe the event (the banquet), the action (hosting), or the condition (being at ease).

Contrast with 饗 (xiǎng): while both involve feasting, 饗 typically refers to formal offerings to ancestors or spirits (sacrificial), whereas 宴 is generally human-centric, focusing on social, political, or intimate interaction. In diplomatic contexts, the act of entertaining often functions as a vehicle for negotiation, an exercise of power, or a means of pacification.

Semantic variant: U+8B8C.

The structure (roof 宀 over a base suggesting settling) informs the secondary meaning of "quietude" or "resting."

If a "feast" reading creates a contextual absurdity, consider the senses of stability, quietude, or resting.