Meaning of bento

[gaijinalways]

I had an interesting moment today in class. I often do a section on Japlish (Japanese English) and include the idea of lunch box. Often students mistakenly translate 'bento' as lunch box, instead of a boxed meal (could be dinner or lunch in some cases) or in some cases, a prepared meal in a bag.

But I was surprised to hear a student defending buying something at the convenience store, in her example onigiri, and describing it a a bento. I have never heard a Japanese person use the word 'bento' this way, so I wonder is this usage common?

The student claimed it was in the electronic dictionary (which I often ask them not to use in class as they tend toward bad translation habits rather than trying to work out the meaning of a word from the context), but I am skeptical after getting some messed up definations out of the same said dictionaries.

 

[pipokun]

Often students mistakenly translate 'bento' as lunch box, instead of a boxed meal (could be dinner or lunch in some cases) or in some cases, a prepared meal in a bag.

Actually the original bento includes two differnt meanings as you kindly explained above.
べん‐とう〔‐タウ〕【弁当】

１ 外出先で食べるために持っていく食べ物。「手―」
２ 料理店などで出す、主食と副食をあなどに詰めたもの。 「幕の内―」

So if you only know one meaning, lunch box, you can not understand the following sentence or you have to claim Japlish is useless at all:
"Bento tabeta?", or did you eat your bento box?
You can find some eco-friendly materials now, though.

About onigiri, thank you for your great understanding that onigiri consists of our important bento culture here.