# breakfast



## Nizo

The English word _breakfast_ literally means the meal by which you break your fast, in other words begin to eat again after a period of (overnight) fasting.  Interestingly, the French _déjeuner_ (_jeune_ = fast) and the Spanish _desayuno_ (_ayuno_ = fast) have the same sense.  Are there any other languages in which a meal speaks to the idea of breaking one's fast?  Thanks!


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## shannenms

Persian: Sobhane
From Sobh(=morning) + ane( a suffix which means *of*).


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## jazyk

In Portuguese there's desjejum, des (dis, out of) + jejum (fast), but it's not a word I hear very often. Brazilians normally go for café da manhã (literally: morning coffee) and the Portuguese, as far as I know, say pequeno almoço (literally: small lunch).


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## Lingvisten

In Danish it is just "morgenmad", literally _morning food._


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## Abbassupreme

shannenms said:


> Persian: Sobhane
> From Sobh(=morning) + ane( a suffix which means *of*).


 
There's also "nâshtâ(yi)".  I don't know what the etymology of it is, but I'm fairly sure that it's a pure Persian word whereas "sobhâneh" is of Arabic origin due to the Persian word "sobh(h)" being derived from Arabic.


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## shannenms

Hi,
Nashta is a little different. It is used for lunch, though in modern Persian its meaning changed in your favor


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## Abbassupreme

Wait.  I thought nâhâr was used for lunch, not nâshtâyi.  In any case, I'm fairly sure that some southern dialects of Persian use "nâshtâ" for breakfast.  I could've sworn that I heard my mother and my maternal relatives use it as such . . .


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## shannenms

I am sorry you are right, I edited it. But Nashtaee is a good word for breakfast, because it means _*whatever is eaten after fast or a long time of eating nothing.*_
Thanks.


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## Alijsh

shannenms said:
			
		

> From Sobh(=morning) + ane( a suffix which means of).


To say it more exactly, âne is a suffix, which means "peculiar/dedicated to", "for" e.g. mardâne/zanâne (for men/women e.g. as is written on perfumes). e.g. kafshe mardâne means men's shoe. So, sobhâne means the morning thing (hear "meal").



shannenms said:


> Hi,
> Nashtaee is a little different. It is used for lunch, though in modern Persian its meaning changed in your favor


Yes, you're right. *nâshtâyi* may have lexically a broader meaning, but in common use, it suggests breakfast rather than a mid-day meal (lunch). However, I don't think it ever meant lunch in the past. Do you know any instance of such use in Persian literature?

It derives from *nâshtâ*, which in common use, means "not eaten breakfast" (sobhânenakhorde). For instance, for certain medical tests, the physician asks you to be *nâshtâ* in the day you want to go to the laboratory i.e. you must not have eaten breakfast. Or in Persian herbal medicine, you see that the herb X should be eaten *nâshtâ* in order to have a better effect i.e. when you have not eaten the breakfast yet (have not broken your fast. so *nâshtâyi* is to some extent similar to break-fast).

We have also *châsht* but it is used for a forenoon eating (like a 10- o'clock one).


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## shannenms

I agree entirely
I think Nashtayi is a modern word.


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## Mahaodeh

In Arabic Futuur is breakfast, it means exctly that: "The meal by which you break your fast".  The same name "Futuur" is used in Ramadan (Islamic fasting month) for the meal eaten at dusk after a day of fasting.


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## DrWatson

Finnish: *aamiainen* (derived from *aamu* 'morning', -*nen* is a kind of a diminutive suffix)

German: *Frühstück* (lit. 'early piece')

Estonian: *hommikusöök* (lit. 'morning food')


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## spakh

In Turkish breakfast is kahvaltı. 
There is a common belief that it comes from 'kahve altı' meaning under/after coffee, but there is another suggestion that it is from French café au lait (coffee with milk), passed through the sea trade. I do not know where exactly it comes from but it is sure to be something about coffee not fasting.


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## Nanon

Russian: завтрак / závtrak
завтра / závtra means tomorrow - it is related to утро / útro (morning), so завтра would be "the morning after" and завтрак could be "what you take the morning after".
After _what_? Fast? Why not... But this does not appear in the etymology.


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## irene.acler

In *Italian*: colazione.
I don't know the origin of this word..


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## shannenms

Mahaodeh said:


> In Arabic Futuur is breakfast, it means exctly that: "The meal by which you break your fast". The same name "Futuur" is used in Ramadan (Islamic fasting month) for the meal eaten at dusk after a day of fasting.


 
I think it is Eftar, in Persian it is called Eftar.


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## Mahaodeh

In Arabic Iftar (or Eftar, depending on how you translitrate it) is the act of breaking your fast, the meal itself is called Futuur.


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## jana.bo99

Slovenian:  Zajtrk!

Croatian:   Doručak!


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## noncasper

Vietnamese: Bữa ăn (+sáng for the morning)


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## J.F. de TROYES

Alijsh said:


> It derives from *nâshtâ*, which in common use, means "not eaten breakfast" (sobhânenakhorde). For instance, for certain medical tests, the physician asks you to be *nâshtâ* in the day you want to go to the laboratory i.e. you must not have eaten breakfast. Or in Persian herbal medicine, you see that the herb X should be eaten *nâshtâ* in order to have a better effect i.e. when you have not eaten the breakfast yet (have not broken your fast. so *nâshtâyi* is to some extent similar to break-fast).


 
*nâshtâ* is also the word used for breakfast in Urdu and Hindi , and not for another meal. It is undoubtedly borrowed from Persian with its original meaning.


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## shannenms

Nashta is fairly related to Nashetab which means, as I guess, _unhurried_.


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## Spectre scolaire

*Turkish*
kahvaltı is a compound noun (_izafet_) consisting of kahve, “coffee” + alt, “under” + a possessive pronoun -{I} – “coffee its-beneath”, i.e. what is being eaten while having coffee. 
*Modern Greek*
το πρωινό [sc. γεύμα] [to _proin__ó_ jévma], “the _morning_ [meal]. The Greek word is a ‘stranded adjective’, το πρωί [to proí] being “morning”. 
*Chinese*[= Mandarin]
早餐 pinyin: zăocān, “morning [= early] meal”​ ​*PS*: I am sorry, _spakh_ – I oversaw your posting [#13].* *


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## J.F. de TROYES

irene.acler said:


> In *Italian*: colazione.
> I don't know the origin of this word..


 
The same word is also used in other Romance languages :
Spanish :      colación
Portuguese :  colação
French   :     collation

It was also  borrowed by Greek, I suppose, from Italian :  κολαταιό ( kolataio ) .These words  mean "small and fast meal" and come back to the mediaval Latin : "collatio" that means whatever is brought by everybody and gathered , and more precisely to eat together. In old Latin "collatio" ( putting together, meeting, comparison...) is the past participle of the verb "confero" ( 1st meaning : "to bring together")


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## Spectre scolaire

J.F. de TROYES said:


> It was also borrowed by Greek, I suppose, from Italian : κολαταιό ( kolataio ) .These words mean "small and fast meal" and come back to the mediaval Latin : "collatione(m)" that means whatever is brought by everybody and gathered , and more precisely to eat together. In old Latin "collatio" ( putting together, meeting, comparison...) is the past participle of the verb "confero" ( 1st meaning : "to bring together")


 I think the Standard Greek version of it would be το κολατσιό, and it is most probably borrowed from Venitian which has single [l] and hence fits well into the phonological habits of Modern Greek. 

To your Latin exegesis one could perhaps add that whatever each of us brings together for the meal is called _confertum_. The verbal noun _collatio_ I interpret as the very “together-bringing [of this stuff]” [in order to eat]. Or is this too subtle? By the way, not everybody seems to agree on this “_confero_ etymology”.  

The word κολατσιό, by the way – as far as my own experience goes – seems to be relegated to dialects nowadays. I have more frequently seen it in some Northern dialects than in Standard Greek. Eating habits and indeed eating times tend to be different in urban and rural settings. In other languages obsolete words relative to this semantic sphere can be observed subsequent to urbanization.
​


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## J.F. de TROYES

Spectre scolaire said:


> *Chinese*[= Mandarin]
> 早餐 pinyin: zăocān, “morning [= early] meal”​


The same is also used in Cantonese 早餐 pronounced jó cháan.
In Mandarin 早饭 zǎo fàn or 早点 zǎo diǎn have the same meaning : early morning + food.

Like Chinese Asian South Eastern languages don't know the notion of "breaking fast" :

*Burmese
*
reufpm
mëne?sa= morning + food

*Thai *

อาหรเชา   aahãan cháo = food + early

*Khmer (Cambodian ) *

bai bpreuk  = rice / food + morning

*Indonesian
*
makanan pagi = food +morning


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## Maja

In Serbian: *doručak*.


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## kusurija

In Czech:
*snídaně* (it is that, what is to be "_snědeno_" = eaten down)

In Lithuanian: 
*pusryčiai* (half of morning (meal))


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## J.F. de TROYES

Spectre scolaire said:


> I think the Standard Greek version of it would be το κολατσιό, and it is most probably borrowed from Venitian which has single [l] and hence fits well into the phonological habits of Modern Greek.
> 
> To your Latin exegesis one could perhaps add that whatever each of us brings together for the meal is called _confertum_. The verbal noun _collatio_ I interpret as the very “together-bringing [of this stuff]” [in order to eat]. Or is this too subtle? By the way, not everybody seems to agree on this “_confero_ etymology”.


Sorry  to make a mistake about "το κολατσιό" , due to a misprint in the dictionary I was refering to  . I just wanted to mention this Greek word as to its link with "colazione". "Breakfast" is πρωινό, as it was said.

In Chistian Latin "collatio" first means lecture, conference and , by extension, a small meal. This sliding of meaning is generally cleared up by Joannus Cassianus'work (360-435), "Collationes" which were used to be read out in monasteries during or just after the dinner, hence the second meaning of a slight meal. As for its Latin etymology it is related to the verb "confero" in French dictionaries.


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## HUMBERT0

In Spanish:
Desayuno and Almuerzo.

Almuerzo. (DRAE)
 (Del art. ár. _al-_ y el lat. _morsus_, mordisco).
*1.     * m. Comida que se toma por la mañana.
*2.     * m. Comida del mediodía o primeras horas de la tarde.


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## Basaloe

In Sweden we say "Frukost" and in Stockholm dialect it is "Frulle"


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## ayessa003

In Filipino:

agahan - breakfast // umaga - morning
tanghalian - lunch // tanghali - noon
hapunan - dinner // hapon - afternoon

It just added the suffix "-an" to the times of the day when the meal is taken. Yeah, we don't know the notion of eating after a period of fasting.


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## macta123

Malayalam : Praadal


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## Flaminius

Japanese:
朝食 (_chōshoku_) — morning meal


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## Mjolnir

*Hebrew*: ארוחת בוקר (aruchat boker) - morning meal.


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## xupxup

In Catalan theres is *desdejuni*, same origin as the spanish _desayuno_, and the french _déjeuner_. But there is also *esmorzar* from the latin _admordere_ = to bite. In spanish this root has derived as _almuerzo._


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## Nanon

One of the confusing things about French (among other delicacies such as 60, 70, 80, 90) is precisely that famous "déjeuner".
In France, when you say "déjeuner", you mean lunch. However, etymologically speaking, you already broke the fast! The breakfast is "petit déjeuner". "Pequeno almoço" in European Portuguese might be a calque, though I am not sure of this.
Belgium, Canada, Switzerland... and a few parts of France have a cleverer system: they use "déjeuner / dîner / souper" instead of "petit déjeuner / déjeuner / dîner" in France... More here in the French forum.


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## robbie_SWE

In Romanian it's *micul dejun*. _Micul_ means "the little" and _dejun_ is the time of day. 

 robbie


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## Hakro

robbie_SWE said:


> In Romanian it's *micul dejun*. _Micul_ means "the little" and _dejun_ is the time of day.


Astonishing close to the French *petit déjeuner*.


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## MarX

J.F. de TROYES said:


> *Indonesian *
> 
> makanan pagi = food +morning


For "breakfast", I personally say *sarapan* most of the time.

In _Bahasa Manado_, the word *smokol *is used.


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## Nanon

robbie_SWE said:


> In Romanian it's *micul dejun*. _Micul_ means "the little" and _dejun_ is the time of day.
> 
> robbie


 


Hakro said:


> Astonishing close to the French *petit déjeuner*.


 
Hi Robbie, 

Hakro is right to ask and I was also going to - I would like to know why "small" is used -- as opposed to what? As far as I know, "breakfast / lunch / dinner" are "mic dejun / prânz / cina" in Romanian (?)


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## robbie_SWE

Nanon said:


> Hi Robbie,
> 
> Hakro is right to ask and I was also going to - I would like to know why "small" is used -- as opposed to what? As far as I know, "breakfast / lunch / dinner" are "mic dejun / prânz / cina" in Romanian (?)


 
Aha, I was actually waiting for somebody to ask! 

It's like this that the word *dejun* is actually synonymous with prânz, or was so a long time ago. 



> *DEJÚN s. n. masa de prânz; prânz; timpul când se ia această masă.*


 
I don't know if you're familiar with Romanian, but it says "midday meal; lunch; the time when you eat this meal". It is apparently closely linked to _prânz_ and to avoid any confusion we usually say *micul dejun*.

Hope this helped!

 robbie


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## Chriszinho85

ayessa003 said:


> In Filipino:
> 
> agahan - breakfast // umaga - morning


In Tagalog they also use the word *almusal* to say _breakfast, _which is borrowed from Spanish _almorzar_.


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## melelao

It has already been said that the Italian word for breakfast is "colazione": it is true although some more info can be added.
Nowadays almost everybody call the main meals of the day as: colazione (breakfast), pranzo (lunch), and cena (dinner). Ok, to be precise, someone also has a "merenda" (afternoon snack) in the middle of the afternoon, around 16:30 or 17:00.
However, utill some decades ago (and still now in Northern Italy) the names of the meals were slighty different:

Piccola colazione (literally small breakfast) = breakfast
Colazione = lunch
Pranzo = dinner

I am sure that the term "cena" already existed at those times but Pranzo was used to indicate the evening meal. I am from Umbria (Central Italy) and we've always called the evening meal "cena", so it is probably a Central-Southern Italy thing...I don't know.
However, nowadays is still very common to call a "business lunch" as "colazione di lavoro", especially in very fancy restaurants! So, if you come to Italy and you see a restaurant advertising its "colazione di lavoro" menú at 30€ everything included don't think that Italians performs their business meetings at 8:00AM!!!


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## Nanon

robbie_SWE said:


> It's like this that the word *dejun* is actually synonymous with prânz, or was so a long time ago.
> 
> I don't know if you're familiar with Romanian, but it says "midday meal; lunch; the time when you eat this meal". It is apparently closely linked to _prânz_ and to avoid any confusion we usually say *micul dejun*.



Mulţumesc frumos Robbie, it helped a lot. Close to French as Hakro pointed out (_petit _déjeuner vs déjeuner to avoid any ambiguity) so _micul dejun_ could indeed be a calque (sorry, no offence meant!)


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## ilocas2

Slovak:

raňajky


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## Stoggler

ilocas2 said:


> Slovak:
> 
> raňajky



What does it mean? (I mean, what sense does it convey?  Is it anything to do with breaking fast for example?)


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## jazyk

It is probably related to the word _ráno_, morning.


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## anahiseri

HUMBERT0 said:


> In Spanish:
> Desayuno and Almuerzo.
> 
> Almuerzo. (DRAE)
> (Del art. ár. _al-_ y el lat. _morsus_, mordisco).
> *1.     * m. Comida que se toma por la mañana.
> *2.     * m. Comida del mediodía o primeras horas de la tarde.


In fact it's a bit more complicated, depending on the region of Spain (and I can't tell you about Latin America). Where I live, (Valencia), *almuerzo* is a light meal you have around 11 o'clock more or less; a sandwich, a coffee, etc. This is related to the fact that many Spanish people don't have a proper breakfast. - On the other hand, the word *almuerzo* is used in other parts of Spain (for example Madrid) to mean *lunch.*


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## Sardokan1.0

anahiseri said:


> In fact it's a bit more complicated, depending on the region of Spain (and I can't tell you about Latin America). Where I live, (Valencia), *almuerzo* is a light meal you have around 11 o'clock more or less; a sandwich, a coffee, etc. This is related to the fact that many Spanish people don't have a proper breakfast. - On the other hand, the word *almuerzo* is used in other parts of Spain (for example Madrid) to mean *lunch.*



It sound similar to Sardinian :

_ismurzu, immurzu (breakfast)_

while the verb used is "ismurzare / immurzare" (to have a breakfast), also probable cognate of the Italian "smorzare" (to soften, to attenuate), from Latin "exmortiare"

P.S.
Curiosity, the French "dejeuner" (breakfast) has an cognate / false friend in Sardinian : "dejunare" which means instead "to fast, to starve"; same thing of the Italian "digiunare"


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## Penyafort

HUMBERT0 said:


> In Spanish:
> Desayuno and Almuerzo.
> 
> Almuerzo. (DRAE)
> (*Del art. ár. al-* y el lat. _morsus_, mordisco).



The DRAE, being as it is the official dictionary for the Spanish language, should seriously check their etymologies section one day. _Almuerzo _can simply not come from an Arabo-Latin hybrid al + morsus. Either it is a postverbal form of the verb _almorzar _or comes from _*admordium. _The prefix _ad- _becoming _al- _is a common thing.



xupxup said:


> In Catalan theres is *desdejuni*, same origin as the spanish _desayuno_, and the french _déjeuner_. But there is also *esmorzar* from the latin _admordere_ = to bite. In spanish this root has derived as _almuerzo._





anahiseri said:


> In fact it's a bit more complicated, depending on the region of Spain (and I can't tell you about Latin America). Where I live, (Valencia), *almuerzo* is a light meal you have around 11 o'clock more or less; a sandwich, a coffee, etc. This is related to the fact that many Spanish people don't have a proper breakfast. - On the other hand, the word *almuerzo* is used in other parts of Spain (for example Madrid) to mean *lunch.*



I concur. The word *almuerzo *in Spanish changes its actual meaning depending on the region or country. To me, almuerzo is also something eaten between breakfast and lunch, around 11. But in some places it means breakfast while in others lunch indeed.

In Catalan, however, *esmorzar *is quite fixed as the word for breakfast. *Desdejuni *exists but is just never used.



Sardokan1.0 said:


> It sound similar to Sardinian :
> 
> _ismurzu, immurzu (breakfast)_
> 
> while the verb used is "ismurzare / immurzare" (to have a breakfast), also probable cognate of the Italian "smorzare" (to soften, to attenuate), from Latin "exmortiare"



Don't you think it might be a Catalanism rather than a cognate of smorzare? (In Catalan, the word for breakfast is _esmorzar _[əsmur'za], while there is also a cognate for the Italian smorzare, _esmortir _or _esmorteir_)


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## Sardokan1.0

Penyafort said:


> Don't you think it might be a Catalanism rather than a cognate of smorzare? (In Catalan, the word for breakfast is _esmorzar _[əsmur'za], while there is also a cognate for the Italian smorzare, _esmortir _or _esmorteir_)



It's possible, but they could also be cognates of the Italian "smorzare". This verb in Italian is sometimes used when you eat a little piece of something to attenuate your hunger : "smorzare la fame". If we think literally, what is the breakfast? It's when you eat a little quantity of food to *attenuate *your hunger at the beginning of the day.


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## KalAlbè

Haitian Creole: 
*Dejene *from French déjeuner


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## franknagy

Hungarian: "reggeli" from the period of day "reggel"="morning".


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## ThomasK

I think I have not come across the Dutch "*ontbijt*". That means "beginning to bite", just as "ontstaan", beginning to stand, i.e., arise. [Some people might think it means "de-bite" (ont = de in development, débarras, debriefing, etc.), but that is wrong... ] I think there is a clear link with *'Imbiß'* in German…


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