時間
Chinese
o'clock; time; when; hour; season; period |
interstice; separate; between; among; space; (measure word) | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| trad. (時間) | 時 | 間 | |
| simp. (时间) | 时 | 间 | |
Pronunciation
Noun
時間
Derived terms
Japanese
| Kanji in this term | |
|---|---|
| 時 | 間 |
| じ Grade: 2 |
かん Grade: 2 |
| on’yomi | |
Etymology
Probably originally borrowed from Middle Chinese compound 時間 (dzyi kɛn, literally “time interval”). Repurposed in the early Meiji period as a translation of the western term time in relation to philosophy in the 1881 publication of 哲学字彙 (Tetsugaku Jii, “Philosophy Dictionary”) compiled by Inoue Tetsujirō.[1]
The reading is a mix of the goon reading ji and the kan'on reading kan, suggesting either that the reading changed after borrowing (from the expected goon pronunciation of jiken or the expected kan'on pronunciation of shikan), or that this term was independently coined in Japanese after the constituent terms 時 (ji) and 間 (kan) were borrowed.
Noun
時間 (hiragana じかん, rōmaji jikan)
- time
- 時間はありますか？
- Jikan wa arimasu ka?
- Do you have any time?
- 時間はいつでも大丈夫です。
- Jikan wa itsu de mo daijōbu desu.
- Any time works for me.
- (literally, “As for time, whenever is fine.”)
- もうこんな時間！
- Mō konna jikan!
- My, will you look at the time!
- (literally, “[it's] already this sort of time!”)
- 時間にルーズ
- jikan ni rūzu
- never on time
- (literally, “lax about time”)
- 時間と空間の関係
- jikan to kūkan no kankei
- the relationship between time and space
- 時間はありますか？
- hour
- 1時間は60分です。
- Ichi-jikan wa rokujippundesu.
- One hour is 60 minutes.
- 1時間は60分です。
- the hours or time when something happens
- 試験時間に遅れた
- shiken jikan ni okureta
- was late for the exam
- (literally, “late to the time of the exam”)
- 営業時間は月火水、午前９時から午後２時までです。
- Eigyō jikan wa getsu-ka-sui, gozen ku-ji kara gogo ni-ji made desu.
- Business hours are Monday to Wednesday, 9 AM to 2 PM.
- 開館時間
- kaikan jikan
- hours of operation
- 時間です！
- Jikan desu!
- Time's up!
- (literally, “It's time!”)
- 閉園の時間です！
- Heien no jikan desu!
- We're closing now!
- (literally, “It's time for our closing!”)
- あまり時間がなくてすみません
- amari jikan ga nakute sumimasen
- sorry for not having the time [to do something]
- 2002 July 27, Mashiba, Shin, “
第 壱 夜 下 リ階 段 [Night 1: Downward Stairway]”, in夢 喰 見 聞 [The Dream-Eating Inspector], volume 1 (fiction), Tokyo: Square Enix, page 21:- 目覚めの時間だ
- Mezame no jikan da
- It’s time to wake up
- 目覚めの時間だ
- 試験時間に遅れた
Usage notes
The more general word for time, as in "when something happens", is 時 (toki).
- 海辺に行った時
- umibe ni itta toki
- the time I went to the beach, when I went to the beach
Derived terms
- 時間切れ (jikangire): out of time, past the deadline
- 時間帯 (jikantai): time zone; time slot (such as for a TV program)
- 時間つぶし (jikan tsubushi): wasting time; killing time
- 営業時間 (eigyō jikan): business hours
- 所要時間 (shoyō jikan): required time
See also
Counter
時間 (hiragana じかん, rōmaji -jikan)
- an hour-long period
- 一時間、二時間、五時間半
- ichi-jikan, ni-jikan, go-jikan han
- one hour, two hours, five and a half hours
- 何時間もかかりそうです。
- Nan-jikan mo kakari sō desu.
- Apparently it will take many hours.
- 一時間、二時間、五時間半
See also
| Japanese number-counter combinations for 時間 (jikan) | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
| 一時間 (ichijikan) | 二時間 (nijikan) | 三時間 (sanjikan) | 四時間 (yojikan) | 五時間 (gojikan) |
| 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 |
| 六時間 (rokujikan) | 七時間 (shichijikan) 七時間 (nanajikan) |
八時間 (hachijikan) | 九時間 (kujikan) | 十時間 (jūjikan) |
| 100 | 1,000 | 10,000 | How many? | |
| 百時間 (hyakujikan) | 千時間 (senjikan) | 一万時間 (ichimanjikan) | 何時間 (nanjikan) | |