懂中文 Dong Chinese

年

nián

year

Original meaning: 

harvest

Depicts a person (人) harvesting grain (禾) during harvest season, which occurred yearly. 人 also represented the sound, but was later reanalyzed as the sound component 千.

Components
禾 iconic component

禾  Iconic component

hé

  

grain stalk

千 sound component

千  Sound component

qiān

  

thousand

Evolution

年 Oracle script (~1250-1000 BC)

Oracle script

(~1250-1000 BC)
年 Bronze script Early Western Zhou (~1000 BC)

Bronze script

Early Western Zhou (~1000 BC)
年 Seal script Shuowen (~100 AD)

Seal script

Shuowen (~100 AD)
年 Clerical script Eastern Han dynasty (25-220 AD)

Clerical script

Eastern Han dynasty (25-220 AD)
年 Regular script Modern

Regular script

Modern
Definitions

年  

nián

year; new-years; person's age; CL:個|个[gè]

年  

Nián

surname Nian

年 (秊) 

nián

grain; harvest (old); variant of 年[nián]

Most common words with 年
Freq.
Word
Meaning

年

grain

今年

this year

年轻

young

去年

last year

年代

age