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The oracle bone forms and bronze inscriptions show the pictogram (象形) of a cricket or a locust, sometimes with a fire 火 glyph underneath. In its later form, became a Phono-semantic compound (形聲/形声, OC *sʰɯw) : semantic 禾(“grain”) + abbreviated phonetic 𤒅(). Often thought of as an Ideogrammic compound (會意/会意) : 禾(“grain”) + 火(“fire”); after harvesting the grain, the fields are burned to kill locusts and their eggs.
卒 (OC *tsut, “to finish, end, die”), as vegetation dies in autumn; additionally in Zuozhuan, this word's referent was winter's dead vegetation.
Alternatively, Sagart (2023b) relates 秋 (OC *tsʰiw) to 揫 (OC *iw, “to collect, bring together”), whose Old Chinese reconstruction should possibly be amended to *m-tsʰiw or *m-tsiw.
Likely cognate with 明き(aki, “bright”), 赤(aka, “red”), 飽きる(akiru, “to become full up”, possibly in reference to the harvest), 空く(aku, “to become empty”), 開く(aku, “to open up”). However, the exact relationship of these terms remains unclear.
※ H for high and flat syllables (◌́), L for low and flat syllables (◌̀), F for high-to-low syllables (◌̂), R for low-to-high syllables (◌̌). ※ References: [1]