What's origin of the Chinese word for "time" (时间)?

Question

I believe the Chinese word for time is 时间.

Does anybody know how to find out its origin? If there is a place where it is possible to know the origin of Chinese characters please share. Thank you

Answer 1

The '日' radical of '時' indicates it is related to 'sun; day'

The '寺' /si4/ part in '時'/shi2/ is the phonics component

(寺 means 'temple'. As the phonics component of 時, the 'temple' meaning is irrelevant)

時 means 'time; hour'

四時也; 本春秋冬夏之稱。引伸之爲凡嵗月日刻之用

Originally meant four seasons (四時), extended to mean 'years, months, days and hours' (time)

~

間 means 'space between; interval'

~

時間 means 'time' (intervals of days, hours)

There are other time related words in Chinese:

光= light; 陰= shade

光陰= light and shade= day and night= time (cycle of days and nights)

~

寒= cold; 暑= hot

寒暑= cold and hot= winter and summer= time (cycle of seasons)

~

歲= year; 月= month

歲月= year and month= time (passing of years and months)

Jeremy wrote:

if there is a place where it is possible to know the origin of Chinese characters please share

You can find the origins of many Chinese characters in 說文解字 or just wiki it

Answer 2

时: season 间: period

Period of season is time.

Helpful link for character details: http://www.zdic.net/z/1b/xs/65F6.htm