年

年 (radical 51, 干+3, 6 strokes, cangjie input 人手 (OQ), four-corner 8050₀, composition ⿱𠂉㐄 or ⿻午⿱一丨 or ⿻午丄)

• KangXi: page 340, character 1
• Dai Kanwa Jiten: character 9168
• Dae Jaweon: page 648, character 2
• Hanyu Da Zidian: volume 1, page 37, character 6
• Unihan data for U+5E74

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

In the oracle bone script and early bronze inscriptions, it was originally 秂, an ideogrammic compound (會意)  and phono-semantic compound (形聲, OC *niːŋ) : semantic 禾 (“wheat; grain”) + phonetic 人 (OC *njin, “person”) – a person carrying wheat on his back – harvest.

In bronze inscriptions after the Western Zhou period, a stroke was often added to 人 to give 千 (OC *sn̥ʰiːn), which still acted as a phonetic component, and this form (秊) was inherited by later scripts. The current form is inherited from the clerical script, where libian (隸變) has occurred.

From Proto-Sino-Tibetan *s-ni(ː)ŋ ~ *s-nik (“year”).

年

1. year (in generic contexts)

   2012年  ―  2012 nián  ―  the year of 2012

2. harvest
3. annual
4. age
5. period of life

   童年  ―  tóngnián  ―  childhood

6. period (in history)
7. New Year

   過年 / 过年  ―  guònián  ―  to pass the New Year

8. things for the New Year
9. Classifier for years.

   兩年前 / 两年前 [Cantonese]  ―  loeng⁵ nin⁴ cin⁴ [Jyutping]  ―  two years ago

10. A surname​.

• Although 年 is the generic term for year, years of age are typically expressed in 歲／岁 (suì), a separate system based on the duodecennial orbital period of Jupiter. Ages in 歲／岁 (suì) are traditionally reckoned using the Chinese lunar calendar, beginning with 1 at the moment of birth and increasing not during birthdays but at the Chinese New Year.

• 歲／岁 (suì)
• 秋 (qiū)

• “Entry #2298”, in 臺灣閩南語常用詞辭典 [Dictionary of Frequently-Used Taiwan Minnan] (in Chinese and Min Nan), Ministry of Education, R.O.C., 2011.

(grade 1 “Kyōiku” kanji)

• Go-on: ねん (nen, Jōyō)
• Kan-on: でん (den)
• Kun: とし (toshi, 年, Jōyō); とせ (tose, 年); よわい (yowai, 年)^{←よはひ (yofafi, historical)}; みのり (minori, 年)

From Middle Chinese 年 (nen, “year”). Compare modern Mandarin reading nián, Hakka ngièn, Cantonese nin4.

• On’yomi: Goon
  • (Tokyo) ね​ん [néꜜǹ] (Atamadaka – [1])[1]
  • IPA^(key): [nẽ̞ɴ]

年 (hiragana ねん, rōmaji -nen)

1. years

年 (hiragana ねん, rōmaji nen)

1. a year

   年 (ねん)に一度 (いちど)

   nen ni ichido

   once a year

年 (hiragana ねん, rōmaji -nen)

1. a grade, a school year

   彼 (かれ)は中 (ちゅう)学 (がく)２ (に)年 (ねん)だ。

   Kare wa chūgaku ni-nen da.

   He's in the second grade in junior high school.

   • 1984 February 15, Murakami, Motoka, “１年ねん１組くみの六ム三サ四シと嵐らん子この巻まき [Class-1 Freshmen, Musashi and Ranko]”, in 六ム三サ四シの剣けん [Musashi’s Sword], volume 13 (fiction), Tokyo: Shogakukan, →ISBN, pages 142–144:

     な、なんだおまえら⁉

     Na, nan da o-maera⁉

     Wh-Who the hell are you⁉

     １年 (ねん)１組 (くみ)っ‼夏 (なつ)木 (き)六 (ム)三 (サ)四 (シ)ぃ‼

     Ichinen ichikumi'‼ Natsuki Musashii‼

     Class-1 freshman‼ Natsuki Musashi‼

     同 (おな)じく轟 (とどろき)嵐 (らん)子 (こ)！

     Onajiku Todoroki Ranko!

     Same here, Todoroki Ranko!

2. a year

   ２００８ (にせんはち)年 (ねん)に橋 (はし)を建設 (けんせつ)し始 (はじ)めるようだ。

   Nisen-hachi-nen ni hashi o kensetsu shi hajimeru yō da.

   It seems like they will start constructing the bridge in (the year) 2008.

/to₂si/ → /tosi/ → /toɕi/

From Old Japanese. Originally referred to grain, particularly rice, and by extension, the year's harvest.[2]

• Kun’yomi
  • (Tokyo) とし​ [tòshíꜜ] (Odaka – [2])[1]
  • IPA^(key): [to̞ɕi]

• 歳

年 (hiragana とし, rōmaji toshi)

1. (obsolete) grain, particularly rice
2. (obsolete) a grain harvest, a grain crop
3. a year
4. age

• 年 (とし)神 (がみ) (Toshigami): the spirit or god of the year
• 年 (とし)を取 (と)る (toshi o toru): to pass New Years; to age

/to₂se/ → /tose/

From Old Japanese.[2] Likely a shift in pronunciation from toshi.

• Kun’yomi
  • IPA^(key): [to̞se̞]

年 (hiragana とせ, rōmaji -tose)

1. (obsolete) used to count years
   • c. 759, Man'yōshū (book 5, poem 880), text :

     阿 (あ)麻 (ま)社 (ざ)迦 (か)留 (る)、比奈尓伊都 (ひなにいつ)等 (と)世 (せ)、周麻比都都 (すまひつつ)、美夜故能提夫利 (みやこのてぶり)、和周良延尓家利 (わすらえにけり)

     Amazakaru, hina ni itsu tose, sumahitsutsu, miyako no teburi, wasuraenikeri

     While living five years in the far-remote countryside, I wound up forgetting the manners of the capital

年 (eumhun 해 년 (hae nyeon), South Korea 해 연 (hae yeon))

1. year

• 閏年 (윤년, yunnyeon)
• 學年 (학년, haknyeon)

年: Hán Việt readings: niên[1][2][3]
年: Nôm readings: năm[1][2][3][4], nên[1][2][3], niên[1][2][4], niền[2]

1. Hán tự form of niên (“year”).
2. Nôm form of năm (“year”).