nián
year
Pictograph of a person (人) harvesting grain (禾). The harvest season is a yearly event.
Evolution

Oracle script
(~1250-1000 BC)
Bronze script
Early Western Zhou (~1000 BC)
Seal script
Shuowen (~100 AD)
Clerical script
Eastern Han dynasty (25-220 AD)Regular script
ModernDefinitions
Sources
季旭昇《說文新證》p.574-575