中天 (zhōng tiān) — (noun, astronomy) culmination, meridian transit (of a star, planet, etc.); (noun, literary) the middle of the sky, the firmament

Definition

Literary/astronomical term for the meridian — the point where a celestial body crosses its highest arc, or the sky's vault itself. Mostly seen in poetry, classical writing, and astronomy contexts.

noun
(noun, astronomy) culminationmeridian transit (of a star, planet, etc.)(noun, literary) the middle of the skythe firmament
Easily confused

Examples

  • 中天。
    Zhè kē héng xīng zài wǔ yè dào dá zhōng tiān.
    This fixed star reaches its culmination at midnight.
  • 中天。
    Gǔ rén xiāng xìn zhōng tiān zhī shàng yǒu shén xiān.
    Ancients believed that above the firmament there were immortals.
  • 中天。
    Tā zài shī zhōng miáo xiě le zhōng tiān de zhuàng lì jǐng xiàng.
    He described the magnificent scene of the firmament in his poem.

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.

中zhōngcenter
天tiānsky

中 gives the center and 天 gives the sky, so it means the middle of the sky.

Characters in this word

A drawing of the thing itself, worn down over three thousand years into a few strokes.

The original picture showed a flagpole with a drum in the middle, set up in the center of a field.

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

Meaning part形符xíngfú
大大dà
Sound part声符shēngfú
丁
丁dīng天tiān
The sound has drifted apartThe sound part was a clue two thousand years ago — it often still helps, but not always.

The shape comes from a frontal standing man 大 with a head; 天 pairs 大 with 丁 for sound.

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