本文主要探討金文一常見器名修飾詞「□」字本義以及「□＋器名」的相關問題。首先針對《說文解字》之說解以及前賢學者之研究進行檢討歸納，同意《說文》分析有誤以及此字字音當從幽部字之說；其次在此基礎上，進一步指出金文「□」與甲、金文所見之「□」無論在字形或字義方面皆有密切關係，從而認為「□」从食从之構形，即是在的祈求義上強調食物的進獻；其三則通過相關文例之比對，爬梳「□」字從西周早期到戰國時代的發展狀況，發現此字除作器名修飾語之外，亦作動詞，其字義同時兼攝進獻與祈求兩方面，因此本文提出金文「□」字之本義當為「進獻食物以祈求」，除進獻義外，也應著重祈求義。同時亦注意到隨時間發展，原本作為「□」分化字的「□」，後來不僅吸收「□」字字義，更徹底取代之，使得該字於東周時期存在更豐富多元的用法。最後本文運用藝術史學家對於器型學之研究成果，重新考察以「□」為器名修飾詞之器物，發現不僅從構形訓詁方面能推衍出與進獻食物有關之字義，據器型發展脈絡來看，亦可發現以「□」字修飾之器皿多半可視為裝盛食物之器，即便是少數過去視為水器之器皿，如今亦可進一步理清，並且印證本文對於「□」字本義之說解。

This paper studies the ancient bronze character □ (daou) and related issues in bronze inscriptions. First, I reevaluate the evidence in Shuowen jiezi and the major arguments about this character put forth by modern scholars. I agree that the traditional analysis in Shuowen jiezi is wrong, and that the pronunciation of the word should belong to the you-rime group in old Chinese. Second, I suggest that the □ (daou) character with the ＂shi＂ radical and those □ (daou) without regardless their different shapes, are closely related in meaning. Both □/□ (daou) mean ＂sacrifice of food＂. Third, through the comparison of related phrases, I conclude that from early Western Zhou to Eastern Zhou the character □ (daou) was used as an adjective and a verb, meaning ＂sacrificial＂/ ＂to sacrifice＂ and ＂to pray＂. This paper suggests that the original meaning of the character was ＂to pray through the offering of food.＂ It also notes that overtime, the character □ (daou) with ＂shi＂ radical not only absorbed the meanings of the character □ (daou) without the radical but eventually replaced it. In the final part of this paper I use the results of the art historical research on the typology of bronze vessels, and reinvestigate the vessels with ＂□ (daou)+ vessel name.＂ Not only the paleographical and philological investigation suggest that the meaning of this character is ＂to pray through the offering of food,＂ but the typological study of the bronze vessels also confirms that meaning. Even though there are some exceptions, such as few water vessels (not food vessels) also bearing this name, these can be also explained.