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Etymology data from Wiktionary via Wiktextract (CC BY-SA 4.0). Chinese character data from the 說文解字, the Taiwan MOE 國語辭典簡編本 (CC BY-ND 3.0 TW) and HSK/TOCFL lists.

Explanations are written by a local model (gemma4) and only published after a verification pass against the cited sources. How it works.

Chinese

時

shí
season
  • Phono-semantic compound 形聲
  • HSK 1
  • TOCFL 4
  • radical 日
  • 10 strokes
  • 时

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Origin

The character 時 is a phono-semantic compound. According to the Shuowen Jiezi, it is composed of the semantic component 日 (sun; day) and the phonetic component 寺. Wiktionary identifies the phonetic component as 之 (reconstructed as *tjɯ, “to go”), which itself consists of the components 止 (foot) and 一 (one). The combination of the sun and the concept of going suggests the passing of time.

In ancient scripts, the character took the form 旹, though the phonetic component later changed to 寺. The character is attested in bronze, chu, qin, seal, and regular scripts. It carries meanings related to seasons, a duration of time, specific moments, or an era.

Confidence: high · written by gemma4:26b, checked statement-by-statement against the sources below.

「時」字在構造上屬於形聲字。根據《說文解字》的記載，此字從「日」部，並以「寺」作為聲符。在音韻重建方面，其上古音被重建為 *djɯ，由表示「太陽」或「天」的「日」作為語義成分，以及表示「去」的「之」（上古音重建為 *tjɯ）作為音符，藉此傳達時間流逝的概念。

在古文字形態中，此字曾出現過「旹」的寫法，隨後音符部分演變為「寺」。此字的書寫形式最早見於青銅器、楚文字、秦文字、篆書與楷書。其音符「之」字本身由「止」（腳）與「一」組成。

Confidence: high · written by gemma4:26b, checked statement-by-statement against the sources below.

Lineage

  • meaningChinese日 “Sun”
  • soundChinese之 “to go”
    • ideaChinese止 “foot”
    • ideaChinese一 “one”

Words built on it: 時間, 時候, 小時, 同時, 當時, 有時

Wiktionary etymology text

Phono-semantic compound (形聲 /形声, OC *djɯ): semantic 日 (“sun; day”) + phonetic 之 (OC *tjɯ, “to go”) — the passing of time.

In ancient scripts, it had the form 旹. The phonetic component later changed to 寺.

; "time", "duration"

; "this"

From Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Meanings

character
  1. season
  2. time (a duration)
  3. time (the passing of time)
  4. times; years; era
  5. time; fixed time
  6. double-hour

Shuowen Jiezi 說文解字

時：四時也。从日寺聲。

Xu Shen, c. 100 CE — the first analytical dictionary of Chinese characters.

國語辭典 definitions

  1. 季節。 例：四時
  2. 時候，一段時間。 例：古時、當時、盛行一時
  3. 特定的時刻。 例：按時、準時
  4. 機會。 例：失時、時機、及時把握
  5. 當前的、現在的。 例：時事、時局、時裝
  6. 經常、常常。 例：時常

© Ministry of Education, Taiwan — CC BY-ND 3.0 TW, shown unaltered.

How 時 was written 字形演變

  1. 時 in Bronze script
    Bronze
    金文
    Shang–Zhou
  2. 時 in Chu slips & silk script
    Chu slips & silk
    楚系簡帛
    Warring States
  3. 時 in Qin slips script
    Qin slips
    秦系簡牘
    Qin
  4. 時 in Small seal script
    Small seal
    說文小篆
    Shuowen, c. 100 CE
  5. 時 in Regular script
    Regular
    楷書
    since c. 200 CE

Historical forms collected by the legacy etymfun dataset; most characters have several attested variants.

Sources

  • etymagent (local gemma4:26b) — Generated
  • Historical glyph forms (zdic.net 字形演变) — Rights unverified
  • HSK / TOCFL word lists — Facts (levels)
  • 教育部《國語辭典簡編本》 (Taiwan MOE) — CC BY-ND 3.0 TW
  • 說文解字 Shuowen Jiezi (Xu Shen, c. 100 CE) — Public domain
  • Written form — n/a
  • Wiktionary (via Wiktextract / kaikki.org) — CC BY-SA 4.0
  • Wiktionary: 時