Zi:年

年 [nián] year; 今(明,去)年 this (next, last) year; (HDZ:) 五谷成熟; … [nìng] 佞

One monosyllabic entry in The ABC Chinese-English Comprehensive Dictionary (namespace Ci):

►¹nián* 年 {A} m. year ◆b.f. ①age ►niánlíng 年龄 ②New Year ►¹niángāo 年糕 ③a period in one's life ►¹zhōngnián 中年 ④a period in history ►mònián 末年 ⑤harvest ►niáncheng 年成 ◆n. ①age ‖ Tā ∼ jìn liùshí. 他∼近六十。 He's close to 60 years old. ②Surname

The character 年 (6 strokes) is an old abbrev. of older forms such as 秊 (8 strokes); in the modern form 年 the top part 𠂉 (2 strokes) corresponds to the first 2 strokes of the old upper component 禾, and the remainder of the old form is abbrev. (to 4 strokes, see below).
    The Shuōwén Seal form of 年(秊) nián ‘ripe grain/crops’ is said to combine 禾 hé ‘cereal/grain’ (as in 季 jì ‘annual season’), with 千 qiān ‘thousand’ (phonosemantic): a bumper crop of grain in annual harvest season, yielding thousands upon thousands of grains of rice/millet/etc. (大有年: 大丰年); the autumn harvest comes but once a year, marking the success of the whole year's work, with ample seed for future planting.
    Note: In the old form 秊⿱禾千 ((p,h,s,p,n),(p,h,s)) the strokes of 千 (p,h,s) repeat (like the years), since the upper component 禾 (p,h,s,p,n) begins with the same 3 strokes as the lower component 千 (p,h,s); and in the modern form 年 (p,h,h,s,h,s) the last 2 strokes (h,s) repeat the last 2 strokes of 千 (p,h,s); the central 4 strokes (s,p,n,p) of the old form 秊 (p,h,(s,p,n,p),h,s) are reduced to 2 strokes (h,s) in the modern form 年 (p,h,(h,s),h,s); formerly also abbrev. 〾𤘧⿱千千, and 𠦅⿰千千 (YTZ) with the same stroke count as 年; some of the many old variants are complex and suggest numeric/mathematical/astronomical usage: 𠦅, 〾𤘧, 䄭, 秊/䄹, 𠦚/𠡦, 𦼌, 𠫺/𠬋 (YTZ).
    Note: Different ‘year’ words arose in different historical periods: (夏) 岁/歲 suì; (商) 祀 sì; (周) 年(秊) nián; (唐虞) 載(𨌏) zǎi (HDZ).
    Older graphs associated with 年(秊) have the component 人 rén ‘person’ below instead of 千 qiān ‘thousand’, but 人 is itself a component of 千; some old forms have 壬/𡈼(𡔛); OBI graphs are assoc. with 稔, as in 稔熟 rěnshú//rěnshóu ‘ripe/mature (of grain/etc.)’ (HDZ), cf. 念熟 niànshú.
    “[年] The crop ... the thousand grains. By extension, a year, the time required for a harvest” —Wieger.
    Compare: 季 jì ‘season of the year’; 委 wěi ‘yield/follow’.
    Compare: 秀(秂) xiù ‘flower/bear (excellent/outstanding) seed/fruit’; 秃(禿) tū ‘bald/bare’.
    HDZ: 年 : nián : 五谷成熟; (单位) 时间, 地球环绕太阳从某一定标点回到同一定标点所经历的时间 (恒星年, 回归年, 近点年; 闰年); 年节 (新年, 过年); 年纪, 岁数 (年富力强, 年高德劭); 某一时期 (近年, 南宋末年, 少年, 青年, 老年); 帝王的年号 (改年: 改元); 命运, 时运; (姓) • nìng : 佞
    HDC: 稔熟 : 熟悉; 成熟
 ►references: Guǎngyùn:134.45; Wieger:24d; Henshall:64; Karlgren:AD669,GSR364a; Hànyǔ Dà Zìdiǎn:1.37.6; Lindqvist:188; Mathews:4711; Kāngxī Zìdiǎn:340.01; Bǐshùn Guīfàn:028.1.04; Wáng(1993):181; EDOC:1
►components: 千𠂉十㐄𡕒
 ►Cantonese: nihn\
►stroke 年 (... strokes)
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Unicode: U+5E74
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