春

Translingual

Stroke order

Stroke order

Alternative forms

There are minor differences in where the last stroke of the top component (top-left to bottom-right diagonal) starts – on the second horizontal stroke or on the third.

Han character

春 (Kangxi radical 72, 日+5, 9 strokes, cangjie input 手大日 (QKA), four-corner 5060₃, composition ⿱𡗗日)

Usage notes

• This character is not to be confused with 舂 (U+8202) which is visually similar but unrelated.

Derived characters

• 偆, 㖺, 堾, 媋, 𢝣, 湷, 𬌸, 𬯌, 暙, 䐏, 椿, 瑃, 𨕌, 㿤, 睶, 𬓉, 𮄵, 蝽, 賰(䞐), 踳, 𨩃, 䮞(𩨁), 鰆(䲠), 𪂹, 𠝩, 萶, 箺, 䦮, 𩄄, 鬊, 惷, 𣕮, 𭾇, 𪃣, 蠢, 𩯥

References

• Kangxi Dictionary: page 493, character 6
• Dai Kanwa Jiten: character 13844
• Dae Jaweon: page 856, character 7
• Hanyu Da Zidian (first edition): volume 2, page 1496, character 10
• Unihan data for U+6625

Chinese

Wikipedia has articles on:

• 春 (消歧義) (Written Standard Chinese^?)
• 春 (Cantonese)
• 春 (Classical)
• chhun (Southern Min)

Glyph origin

Historical forms of the character 春
Shang	Spring and Autumn	Warring States	Shuowen Jiezi (compiled in Han)	Liushutong (compiled in Ming)	Libian (compiled in Qing)
Oracle bone script	Bronze inscriptions	Chu slip and silk script	Small seal script	Transcribed ancient scripts	Clerical script

Originally phono-semantic compound (形聲／形声, OC *tʰjun) : semantic 艸 (“grass”) + phonetic 屯 (OC *duːn, *tun, “sprout”) + semantic 日 (“sun”). Later 艸 and 屯 merged into 𡗗.

The character 春 itself is probably a variant of 屯 (OC *duːn, *tun) as they are equivalent for the meaning “spring” in Old Chinese literature.

Etymology 1

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 ~ *tʰu. He further relates OC *tʰu ~ *tʰu to Bodo (India) dəy, Mizo tui, Proto-Karen *ʔdejᴮ, from tentative Proto-Sino-Tibetan *tʰur, (STEDT, however, reconstructs Proto-Sino-Tibetan *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 .

Pronunciation

Definitions

春

1. spring (season)

   春天  ―  chūntiān  ―  spring

   四季如春  ―  sìjìrúchūn  ―  to experience a moderate and pleasant climate throughout the year

   • 暫伴月將影，行樂須及春。 [Classical Chinese, trad.]
     暂伴月将影，行乐须及春。 [Classical Chinese, simp.]

     From: 8th century, Li Bai, 月下獨酌

     Zàn bàn yuè jiāng yǐng, xínglè xū jí chūn.

     (please add an English translation of this usage example)

2. (literary) year; age

   • 妾身守空閨，良人行從軍。自期三年歸，今已歷九春。 [Classical Chinese, trad.]
     妾身守空闺，良人行从军。自期三年归，今已历九春。 [Classical Chinese, simp.]

     From: 3rd century, Cao Zhi, 雜詩·西北有織婦

     Qièshēn shǒu kōngguī, liángrén xíng cóngjūn. Zì qī sān nián guī, jīn yǐ lì jiǔ chūn.

     (please add an English translation of this usage example)

3. spring scenery
4. vitality; liveliness; energy; life

   妙手回春  ―  miàoshǒuhuíchūn  ―  to effect a miraculous cure and bring the dying back to life

5. love; lust

   春情  ―  chūnqíng  ―  amorous feelings

   思春期  ―  sīchūnqī  ―  puberty

   • 有女懷春，吉士誘之。 [Pre-Classical Chinese, trad.]
     有女怀春，吉士诱之。 [Pre-Classical Chinese, simp.]

     From: The Classic of Poetry, c. 11^th – 7^th centuries BCE, translated based on James Legge's version

     Yǒu nǚ huái chūn, jíshì yòu zhī.

     There is a young lady with thoughts natural to the spring,
     And a fine gentleman would lead her astray.

6. a type of alcoholic drink which is fermented from spring to winter

See also

Usage notes

In Chinese culture, upside-down 春 is often used on CNY decorations and symbolizes the arrival of spring after a homophonic pun: 春倒 (dào, “inverted”) = 春到 (dào, “to arrive”).

Compounds

Descendants

Etymology 2

Possibly from Proto-Sino-Tibetan *d(w)əj (“egg; testicle”) (Baxter and Sagart, 2014). Sagart (2023b) reconstructs Old Chinese *tʰu ~ *tʰu 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.).

Pronunciation

Definitions

春

1. (Cantonese, Hakka, Teochew) egg; roe

   水蛇春咁長／水蛇春咁长 [Cantonese]  ―  seoi² se⁴ ceon¹ gam³ coeng⁴   ―  extremely long or lengthy (literally, “as long as a chain of water snake eggs”)

2. (Cantonese, vulgar) testicle
3. (Cantonese, vulgar) goddamn, the hell

   你搞乜春呀？ [Cantonese, trad. and simp.]

   nei⁵ gaau² mat¹ ceon¹ aa³?

   What the fuck are you doing?

4. (Cantonese, vulgar, always with the classifier) nothing; damn all; jack shit; bugger all (Classifier: 條／条 c)

   Synonyms: 毛, 鐵／铁 (tit³)

   你識條春咩？ [Cantonese, trad.]
   你识条春咩？ [Cantonese, simp.]

   nei⁵ sik¹ tiu⁴ ceon¹ me¹?

   What the hell do you know?

5. (Cantonese, vulgar) negates the meaning of the sentence

   關你春事！／关你春事！ [Cantonese]  ―  gwaan¹ nei⁵ ceon¹ si⁶!   ―  None of your damn business!

Synonyms

Compounds

References

• “春”, in 漢語多功能字庫 (Multi-function Chinese Character Database)‎, 香港中文大學 (the Chinese University of Hong Kong), 2014–

Japanese

Kanji

(grade 2 “Kyōiku” kanji)

Readings

• Go-on: しゅん (shun, Jōyō)
• Kan-on: しゅん (shun, Jōyō)
• Kun: はる (haru, 春, Jōyō)
• Nanori: あずま (azuma)^{←あづま (aduma, historical)}; あつ (atsu); かす (kasu); かず (kazu); す (su); とき (toki); はじめ (hajime)

Compounds

Etymology 1

Japanese Wikipedia has an article on:

春

Wikipedia ^ja

/paru/ → /ɸaru/ → /haru/

From Old Japanese.

Pronunciation

• (Tokyo) は​る (Atamadaka – )
• IPA^(key):

• Audio

  (file)

Noun

春(はる) • (haru) 

1. the spring (season)

   Synonyms: 春季 (shunki), 春期 (shunki)

2. (by extension) the New Year
3. adolescence, youth
4. a heyday of one’s life
5. a time of happiness after a long period of difficulty
6. (slang, euphemistic) sexual intercourse

   春(はる)をひさぐ ― haru o hisagu ― to engage in prostitution(literally, “to sell sex”)

Coordinate terms

Derived terms

Etymology 2