春

Phono-semantic compound (形聲 /形声, *tʰun): semantic 艸 (“grass”) + phonetic 屯 (*dˤun;*trun;*dun, “swollen sprout”) + semantic 日 (“sun”). Some oracle-bone and bronze forms contain only two components, either 艸/屮 with 屯, or 日 with 屯.

The form 萅 preserves the older arrangement with 艸. In the regular script, the 艸 and 屯 have merged into 𡗗.

Schuessler (2007) relates it to 芚 (OC *duːn, “(of plants) to begin to grow”); he also compares it Khmer ដុះ (doh, “to grow; to germinate; to sprout”), as well as 穿 (OC *kʰljon, *kʰljons, “to bore through”) (ibid.).

Sagart (2023b) relates it to a vulgar (i.e. ignoble and popular) word which means "egg", which lacked a character, whose modern reflexes are Meixian Hakka 春 (cun¹, “egg, roe”), Sixian Hakka 春 (chhûn), and Cantonese 春 (ceon¹, “egg, roe; testicle”) (IPA: /t͡ʃʰɵn⁵⁵/); and for which he further reconstructs Old Chinese *tʰu[n] ~ *tʰu[r]. He further relates OC *tʰu[n] ~ *tʰu[r] to Bodo (India) dəy, Mizo tui, Proto-Karen *ʔdejᴮ, from tentative Proto-Sino-Tibetan *tʰur, (STEDT, however, reconstructs *d(w)əy (“egg, testicle”)) and notes a connection between "eggs" and Chinese new year season, as birds generally nest and lay eggs in the warmer months in the north https://www.skedaddlewildlife.com/location/durham-region/blog/when-do-birds-lay-eggs/.

Possibly from Proto-Sino-Tibetan *d(w)əj (“egg; testicle”) (Baxter and Sagart, 2014). Sagart (2023b) reconstructs Old Chinese *tʰu[n] ~ *tʰu[r] from tentative Proto-Sino-Tibetan *tʰur, some of whose other descendants are Bodo (India) dəy, Mizo tui, Proto-Karen *ʔdejᴮ, etc.; he also relates it to 春 (chūn) "springtime" after noting a connection between eggs and Chinese new year season, as birds generally nest and lay eggs in the warmer months in the north (ibid.).