jì​xià

late summer

season

Original meaning: youngest, small grains

represents short stalks of grain, represents a young child. Based on the original meaning "youngest, small grains". The meaning later shifted to "crops", and "season".

Components

Meaning component
grain stalk
Meaning component
zi, zǐ child

Character Evolution

Oracle form
Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Mid Western Zhou ~900 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Mid Western Zhou ~900 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Spring and Autumn 771-476 BC
Seal form
Seal Warring States (Chu) 475-221 BC
Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Spring and Autumn 771-476 BC
Clerical form
Clerical Qin 221-206 BC
Clerical form
Clerical Western Han 202 BC-9 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Western Han 202 BC-9 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Regular Modern

Component uses

Sound (0 of 1 verified)

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-SagartkjwijHkʷi[t]-s youngest

說文解字

《說文》:“季,少偁也。从子,从稚省,稚亦聲。”

Sources

Character origin
漢語多功能字庫
Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Baxter-Sagart
Historical images
Academia Sinica

xià summer

Pictograph of a person, represented by their head () and feet (), being heated underneath the sun (). The sun component was later omitted for brevity during the Warring States period.

Components

Deleted component
sun

The sun () component began to be omitted for brevity during the Warring States period.

Iconic component
(head), page

Depicts a head.

Iconic component
zhǐ, zhōng go

Depicts a foot.

Character Evolution

Oracle form
Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC
Oracle form
Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Late Western Zhou ~800 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Early Warring States ~400 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Mid Warring States ~300 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Mid Warring States ~300 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Qin 221-206 BC
Seal form
Seal Warring States (Chu) 475-221 BC
Seal form
Seal Warring States (Chu) 475-221 BC
Seal form
Seal Warring States (Chu) 475-221 BC
Seal form
Seal Warring States (Chu) 475-221 BC
Seal form
Seal Warring States (Chu) 475-221 BC
Seal form
Seal Warring States (Chu) 475-221 BC
Seal form
Seal Warring States (Chu) 475-221 BC
Seal form
Seal Warring States (Chu) 475-221 BC
Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Spring and Autumn 771-476 BC
Clerical form
Clerical Qin 221-206 BC
Clerical form
Clerical Qin 221-206 BC
Clerical form
Clerical Western Han 202 BC-9 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Western Han 202 BC-9 AD
Regular Modern

Component uses

Sound (0 of 3 verified)

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-SagarthaeX[ɢ]ˤraʔ great
haeH[g]ˤraʔ
(~ *[g]ˤraʔ-s)
summer

說文解字

《說文》:“夏,中國之人也。从夊、从頁、从。,兩手;夊,兩足也。,古文(夏)。”

Sources

Character origin
漢語多功能字庫
Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Baxter-Sagart
Historical images
Academia Sinica