日 - Meaning and history | Japanese Kanji
日
Kun readings 🇯🇵
On readings 🇨🇳
The kanji derives from the pictogram that originally represented the solar disk and which in its evolution has taken its current form. Each word that contains 日 has to do with the day of the year on the calendar, and also with sunlight.
This ideogram has 4 画 traits and is also radical, meaning that it becomes a part within other kanji, like a keyword of the kanji itself.
明るい is an adjective which meansbright,clear. As you can see the kanji 明 contains the element 日 "Sun, light"
日本 Nihon or Nippon is the term that indicates Japan: the Rising Sun, 本 in this case indicates the origin
The adjective "Japanese" derives directly from the Japanese name and pronunciation.
日曜日 Sunday, the day of the Sun
All terms indicating the day of the week contain the ideogram of day 日 at the end of the word:
- 月曜日
Monday - 火曜日
Tuesday - 水曜日
Wednesday - 木曜日
Thursday - 金曜日
Friday - 土曜日
Saturday - 日曜日
Sunday
曜日 indicates the day of the week.
誕生日 the birthday, the day (日) of the birth (誕生)
For the birthday there is also often the loan word from English "birthday", which is adapted to Japanese phonetics and becomes バースデイ.
Happy birthday
時 is the ideogram that translates time, moment, hour, season and contains as radicals the element 日 day, say
日 is also counter, classifier or numeric suffix to count the days of the month:
- 一日
the first of the month - 二日
the two - 三日
three - 四日
four - 五日
five - 六日
you are - 七日
seven - 八日
eight - 九日
nine - 十日
ten - 十一日
eleven - 十二日
twelve - 十三日
thirteen - 十四日
fourteen - 十五日
fifteen - 十六日
sixteen - 十七日
seventeen - 十八日
eighteen - 十九日
nineteen - 二十日
twenty - 二十一日
twenty-one - 二十二日
twenty-two - 二十三日
twenty-three - 二十四日
twenty-four - 二十五日
twenty-five - 二十六日
twenty-six - 二十七日
twenty-seven - 二十八日
twenty-eight - 二十九日
twenty-nine - 三十日
thirty - 三十一日
thirty-one
Here above we see the kanji of the numbers. It's important to consider that Arabic numbers are widely used also in the Japanese language.
日 is also the kanji of the famous city of Nikkō: 日光市, "the city of sunlight”, in the mountainous region of Tochiji prefecture
生年月日 we need to fill in some documents where the date of birth is requested: 生 birth, 年 year, 月 month, 日 day.
日付 is the term instead that simply refers to the "date".
本日 indicates today, today's date. 翌日 the next day, the next day.
Every day
Other adverbs of time that contain 日:
- 今日
today - 昨日
yesterday - 一昨日
the day before yesterday - 明日
tomorrow - 明後日
after tomorrow
元日 is the first day of the year, January 1st; 大晦日 instead indicates the last day of the year, December 31st
日 as a radical also in kanji 智 wisdom, reason and intelligence
A beautiful holiday in Japan is Nature Day which falls on the Golden Week period, the holiday week between late April and early May. 緑の日 the day of greenery which is celebrated in May.
お日様 is a beautiful term for the Sun; the kanji 日 of sun / day is preceded by a prefix お and followed by a suffix 様, both honorific to emphasize the greatness and gratitude to the Star to whom we owe our Life
暇 free time, rest, relaxation contains the radical 日
Have a nice day!
Example of kunyomi readings 🇯🇵
ひ
The reading ひ (hi) is the standard reading for the word day and sun and all the expressions that contain these words: every day, one day, number of days, sunlight.
It is also used in words like 春日 spring, 朝日 morining sun, and 夕日 evening sun.
If you go outside the evening sun was already setting down.
び
The reading び (bi) is used for the days of the week among other things:
- 日曜日:
Sunday - 土曜日:
Saturday - 平日:
weekday
Example of onyomi readings 🇨🇳
にち
The reading にち (nichi) is used for time frequencies (everyday, all day long) and for some relative dates (today, tomorrow, first day).
じつ
The reading じつ (jitsu) is similar to にち. It is used for words about a time duration or to specify a relative date: today, tomorrow, yesterday, previous day, half day, and such.
Thank you so much for today.