Variant form of 年. 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.

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

Modern

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