夏令时 (xià lìng shí) — daylight saving time (DST)

Definition

Summer time / daylight saving time — the seasonal clock adjustment. A direct translation: 夏 (summer) + 令 (order) + 时 (time), literally 'summer-ordered time'.

noun
daylight saving time (DST)

Examples

  • 夏令时。
    Měi nián sān yuè zhōng xún kāi shǐ shí xíng xià lìng shí.
    Daylight saving time starts in the middle of March every year.
  • 夏令时，。
    xià lìng shí Jié shù hòu, tiān hēi dé yuè lái yuè zǎo.
    After daylight saving time ends, it gets dark earlier and earlier.
  • 夏令时。
    Hěn duō guó jiā yǐ jīng qǔ xiāo le xià lìng shí.
    Many countries have already abolished daylight saving time.

Origin

Compound word
构词法gòucífǎ
偏正piānzhèngModifier + head

The first part narrows down the second: it says what kind of thing the head is.

夏令summer time
夏xiàsummer令lìngseason
偏正Modifier + head
时shítime

夏令时 joins 夏令, the summer period, with 时, time.

Characters in this word

Two or more meaningful parts placed together so that their meanings combine into a new one.

  • 日日rìsun
  • 頁頁yèhead; man

Some scholars connect 夏 to 日 (sun) and 頁 (head; man), reading it as a man under the sun, but this is uncertain.

Open 夏 →

Two or more meaningful parts placed together so that their meanings combine into a new one.

  • 亼亼jí
  • 卩卩jié

In 令, the upper 亼 is an open mouth and the lower 卩 is a kneeling person, together showing someone giving orders.

Open 令 →

Most characters — around four in five — are built this way: one part hints at the meaning, the other at the pronunciation.

This origin belongs to the traditional form 時; 时 is its simplified writing.

Meaning part形符xíngfú
日日rìsun; day
Sound part声符shēngfú
之
之zhī時shí
Close in sound todayThe sound part was a clue two thousand years ago — it often still helps, but not always.

The traditional form 時 pairs 日 (sun/day) with 之 as the part that gives the sound; the simplified 时 is not the form described.

Open 时 →

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