<p>Yes, this is a coincidence. Generally, if the modern shape is confusing, you need to go back further in time to look at characters' original shapes and purposes to make sense of what's going on. Also, the meaning <em>noon</em> for 「午」 is a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_character_classification#Rebus_(phonetic_loan)_characters" rel="noreferrer">phonetic loan</a>; that is, the shape 「午」 represented a word that sounded similar to an unrelated existing word meaning <em>noon</em>, and the shape has nothing to do with the meaning <em>noon</em>.</p>
<p>「年」 originally depicted a <em>person</em> 「人」 carrying <em>grain plants</em> 「禾」 on their back, indicating the meaning <em>harvest period &gt; year</em>; check out <a href="https://chinese.stackexchange.com/questions/923/is-the-character-%e5%b9%b4-or-its-etymology-related-to-the-mythical-beast-in-chinese"><em>Is the character</em> 年 <em>(or its etymology) related to the mythical beast in Chinese mythology?</em></a> for the glyph origins of 「年」.</p>
<hr />
<h3>Glyph origins of 「午」</h3>
<div class="s-table-container">
<table class="s-table">
<thead>
<tr>
<th style="text-align: center;">時期<br>字體</th>
<th style="text-align: center;">字形</th>
<th style="text-align: center;">參考資料</th>
</tr>
</thead>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shang_dynasty" rel="noreferrer">商</a><br><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_bone_script" rel="noreferrer">甲</a></td>
<td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://i.sstatic.net/rCd4L.png" rel="noreferrer"><img src="https://i.sstatic.net/rCd4L.png" alt="午" /></a></td>
<td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://xiaoxue.iis.sinica.edu.tw/yanbian/Reference/JiaguwenReference" rel="noreferrer">餘</a>1.1<br><a href="http://www.guoxuedashi.com/jgwhj/?bhfl=1&amp;bh=13475&amp;jgwfl=" rel="noreferrer">合集13475</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="text-align: center;">商<br>甲</td>
<td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://i.sstatic.net/chlSB.png" rel="noreferrer"><img src="https://i.sstatic.net/chlSB.png" alt="午" /></a></td>
<td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://xiaoxue.iis.sinica.edu.tw/yanbian/Reference/JiaguwenReference" rel="noreferrer">後</a>2.38.8<br><a href="http://www.guoxuedashi.com/jgwhj/?bhfl=1&amp;bh=34621&amp;jgwfl=" rel="noreferrer">合集34621</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Western_Zhou" rel="noreferrer">西周</a><br><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_bronze_inscriptions" rel="noreferrer">金</a></td>
<td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://i.sstatic.net/WwoCn.png" rel="noreferrer"><img src="https://i.sstatic.net/WwoCn.png" alt="午" /></a></td>
<td style="text-align: center;">作冊䰧卣<br><a href="http://www.guoxuedashi.com/yzjwjc/?bh=5432&amp;jgwfl=" rel="noreferrer">集成5432</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="text-align: center;">西周<br>金</td>
<td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://i.sstatic.net/GWUIo.png" rel="noreferrer"><img src="https://i.sstatic.net/GWUIo.png" alt="午" /></a></td>
<td style="text-align: center;">縣妀簋<br><a href="http://www.guoxuedashi.com/yzjwjc/?bh=4269&amp;jgwfl=" rel="noreferrer">集成4269</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warring_States_period" rel="noreferrer">戰國</a>・<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qi_(state)" rel="noreferrer">齊</a><br>金</td>
<td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://i.sstatic.net/WMgMC.png" rel="noreferrer"><img src="https://i.sstatic.net/WMgMC.png" alt="午" /></a></td>
<td style="text-align: center;">子禾子釜<br><a href="http://www.guoxuedashi.com/yzjwjc/?bh=10374&amp;jgwfl=" rel="noreferrer">集成10374</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="text-align: center;"><br><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Small_seal_script" rel="noreferrer">篆</a></td>
<td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://i.sstatic.net/Q8ftG.png" rel="noreferrer"><img src="https://i.sstatic.net/Q8ftG.png" alt="午" /></a></td>
<td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://ctext.org/library.pl?if=gb&amp;file=77392&amp;page=102" rel="noreferrer">午部</a><br><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shuowen_Jiezi" rel="noreferrer">說文解字</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Han_dynasty#Western_Han" rel="noreferrer">西漢</a><br><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clerical_script" rel="noreferrer">隸</a></td>
<td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://i.sstatic.net/Ikn1J.png" rel="noreferrer"><img src="https://i.sstatic.net/Ikn1J.png" alt="午" /></a></td>
<td style="text-align: center;">秦射42<br>武威漢簡</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="text-align: center;"><br><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regular_script" rel="noreferrer">楷</a></td>
<td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://i.sstatic.net/ovH2S.png" rel="noreferrer"><img src="https://i.sstatic.net/ovH2S.png" alt="午" /></a></td>
<td style="text-align: center;"></td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
</div>
<p>「午」 originally depicted a large wooden <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mortar_and_pestle" rel="noreferrer">pestle</a> used to pound or de-husk grainy foods such as rice. The word that 「午」 originally represented is now written as 「杵」, formed by adding semantic 「木」 (<em>wood</em>), and 「午」 forms or formed parts of other characters such as <a href="https://xiaoxue.iis.sinica.edu.tw/yanbian?kaiOrder=2335" rel="noreferrer">「舂」 (picture</a> of <a href="https://xiaoxue.iis.sinica.edu.tw/yanbian?kaiOrder=60" rel="noreferrer"><em>two hands</em> 「廾」</a> using a <em>pestle</em> 「午」 and <a href="https://xiaoxue.iis.sinica.edu.tw/yanbian?kaiOrder=438" rel="noreferrer"><em>mortar</em> 「臼」</a> &gt; <em>to pound, grind</em>) and <a href="https://chinese.stackexchange.com/questions/12995/mnemonic-or-glyph-origin-for-%E5%BE%A1">「御」 (originally a picture</a> of a <a href="http://xiaoxue.iis.sinica.edu.tw/yanbian?kaiOrder=21830" rel="noreferrer"><em>kneeling person</em> 「卩」</a> operating a <em>pestle</em> 「午」).</p>
<p>As mentioned earlier, 「午」 is a phonetically borrowed character for the word <em>noon</em>, as <em>pestle</em> does not have anything to do with <em>noon</em>.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>There is a peculiar pattern across several older characters: blobs on a vertical line tend to expand outwards into horizontal lines, and this is a simplistic description of what happened to the shape of 「午」 as well. You may check out the following glyph evolution tables for comparison:</p>
<ul>
<li><a href="https://xiaoxue.iis.sinica.edu.tw/yanbian?kaiOrder=111" rel="noreferrer">壬</a></li>
<li><a href="https://xiaoxue.iis.sinica.edu.tw/yanbian?kaiOrder=18" rel="noreferrer">十</a></li>
<li><a href="https://xiaoxue.iis.sinica.edu.tw/yanbian?kaiOrder=40" rel="noreferrer">土</a></li>
</ul>
</blockquote>
<hr />
<p><strong>References:</strong></p>
<ul>
<li><a href="https://humanum.arts.cuhk.edu.hk/Lexis/lexi-mf/" rel="noreferrer">漢語多功能字庫</a></li>
<li><a href="https://xiaoxue.iis.sinica.edu.tw/yanbian" rel="noreferrer">小學堂字形演變</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.guoxuedashi.com/" rel="noreferrer">國學大師</a>
<ul>
<li><a href="http://www.guoxuedashi.com/jgwhj/" rel="noreferrer">郭沫若《甲骨文合集》</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.guoxuedashi.com/yzjwjc/" rel="noreferrer">中國社會科學院考古研究所《殷周金文集成》</a></li>
</ul>
</li>
<li><a href="https://ctext.org/library.pl?if=gb&amp;res=77351" rel="noreferrer">宋・徐鉉等奉敕校定　漢・許慎《說文解字》</a></li>
</ul>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2021-01-19T10:13:57.453Z
2021-01-19T10:26:03.753Z
2021-01-19T10:26:03.753Z
dROOOze
<p>I can give you a general explanation of why many characters in Chinese look similar, but it is out of my reach to shed light on the details of this specific example.</p>
<p>The general reason comes because most literate individuals of Mandarin Chinese <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_characters#Chinese" rel="nofollow noreferrer">know and use between 3,000 and 4,000 different characters</a>, but all of these characters are built by combining only around <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radical_(Chinese_characters)#Variations_in_the_number_of_radicals" rel="nofollow noreferrer">200 components</a> known as <strong>radicals</strong>. The situation is even more extreme as <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kangxi_radical#Statistics" rel="nofollow noreferrer">the 10 most used radicals appear in 10,665 characters (or 23% of all the dictionary entries)</a>.  Radicals often indicate the meaning of the character, known as the <strong>semantic compound</strong>, and / or the sound, known as the <strong>phonetic compound</strong>. In some cases, the original semantic or phonological connection has become obscure, even more as many characters have been modified and simplified over the years.</p>
<p>On practice, this means you will encounter many characters that look similar because they use the same radicals. The compositions of your example are (according to <a href="https://en.wiktionary.org" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://en.wiktionary.org</a>):</p>
<ul>
<li>午: 十 or 丿干.</li>
<li>年: 㐄 or 午 一丨 or 午丄.</li>
</ul>
<p>Understanding the exact nature of the radicals might be difficult. In the wiktionary entries for these words you can find some explanations of their etymological origin. I suggest you look at them if you are interested.</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2021-01-19T09:57:02.733Z
2021-01-19T13:11:22.417Z
2021-01-19T13:11:22.417Z
Puco4
<p>These words don't have meanings that are similar, but why do they look nearly identical? Is it just a coincidence?</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2021-01-19T01:58:58.593Z
[说文解字：年](https://www.zdic.net/hans/%E5%B9%B4)，甲骨文字形，上“禾”，下“人”. Probably comes from some ancient calligraphy, if you check the "字源字形" section.
Shaw
CC BY-SA 4.0
2021-01-19T02:00:27.797Z
Why do you think they look similar? Do western people and Chinese people really have an incompatible pictorial mindset? I feel that they look extremely different. I cannot feel any similarities. By the way, we do have similar Chinese characters, for example, > 己 self
>
> 已 already
>
> 巳 the sixth symbol of the Terrestrial Branches > 戌 the eleventh symbol of the Terrestrial Branches
>
> 戍 garrison
>
> 戊 the fifth symbol of the Celestial Stems > 土 soil
>
> 士 advisors, minister > 未 future
>
> 末 last
Victor
CC BY-SA 4.0
2021-01-19T02:00:33.073Z
toss in 牛 and now you've got yourself a conspiracy
小奥利奥
CC BY-SA 4.0
2021-01-19T13:40:55.957Z
P and R look more like eachother tbh
Introsings
CC BY-SA 4.0
2021-01-19T20:17:54.377Z
anyone who pretends like they dont see the similarity is being pretentious
小奥利奥
<glyph-origin>
Is there a reason why 午 and 年 look so similar?
# Is there a reason why 午 and 年 look so similar?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2021-01-19)

These words don't have meanings that are similar, but why do they look nearly identical? Is it just a coincidence?

**Tags:** glyph-origin

> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: [说文解字：年](https://www.zdic.net/hans/%E5%B9%B4)，甲骨文字形，上“禾”，下“人”. Probably comes from some ancient calligraphy, if you check the "字源字形" section.  
> **username_2**: Why do you think they look similar? Do western people and Chinese people really have an incompatible pictorial mindset? I feel that they look extremely different. I cannot feel any similarities. By the way, we do have similar Chinese characters, for example, > 己 self > > 已 already > > 巳 the sixth symbol of the Terrestrial Branches > 戌 the eleventh symbol of the Terrestrial Branches > > 戍 garrison > > 戊 the fifth symbol of the Celestial Stems > 土 soil > > 士 advisors, minister > 未 future > > 末 last  
> **username_3**: toss in 牛 and now you've got yourself a conspiracy  
> **username_4**: P and R look more like eachother tbh  
> **username_3**: anyone who pretends like they dont see the similarity is being pretentious  

---

## 2 answers

### Answer by username_5 on 2021-01-19. Score: 10

Yes, this is a coincidence. Generally, if the modern shape is confusing, you need to go back further in time to look at characters' original shapes and purposes to make sense of what's going on. Also, the meaning *noon* for 「午」 is a [phonetic loan](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_character_classification#Rebus_(phonetic_loan)_characters); that is, the shape 「午」 represented a word that sounded similar to an unrelated existing word meaning *noon*, and the shape has nothing to do with the meaning *noon*.

「年」 originally depicted a *person* 「人」 carrying *grain plants* 「禾」 on their back, indicating the meaning *harvest period > year*; check out [*Is the character* 年 *(or its etymology) related to the mythical beast in Chinese mythology?*](https://chinese.stackexchange.com/questions/923/is-the-character-%e5%b9%b4-or-its-etymology-related-to-the-mythical-beast-in-chinese) for the glyph origins of 「年」.

---

### Glyph origins of 「午」

| 時期 字體 | 字形 | 參考資料 |
| --- | --- | --- |
| [商](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shang_dynasty) [甲](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_bone_script) | [午](https://i.sstatic.net/rCd4L.png) | [餘](https://xiaoxue.iis.sinica.edu.tw/yanbian/Reference/JiaguwenReference)1.1 [合集13475](http://www.guoxuedashi.com/jgwhj/?bhfl=1&bh=13475&jgwfl=) |
| 商 甲 | [午](https://i.sstatic.net/chlSB.png) | [後](https://xiaoxue.iis.sinica.edu.tw/yanbian/Reference/JiaguwenReference)2.38.8 [合集34621](http://www.guoxuedashi.com/jgwhj/?bhfl=1&bh=34621&jgwfl=) |
| [西周](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Western_Zhou) [金](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_bronze_inscriptions) | [午](https://i.sstatic.net/WwoCn.png) | 作冊䰧卣 [集成5432](http://www.guoxuedashi.com/yzjwjc/?bh=5432&jgwfl=) |
| 西周 金 | [午](https://i.sstatic.net/GWUIo.png) | 縣妀簋 [集成4269](http://www.guoxuedashi.com/yzjwjc/?bh=4269&jgwfl=) |
| [戰國](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warring_States_period)・[齊](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qi_(state)) 金 | [午](https://i.sstatic.net/WMgMC.png) | 子禾子釜 [集成10374](http://www.guoxuedashi.com/yzjwjc/?bh=10374&jgwfl=) |
| [篆](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Small_seal_script) | [午](https://i.sstatic.net/Q8ftG.png) | [午部](https://ctext.org/library.pl?if=gb&file=77392&page=102) [說文解字](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shuowen_Jiezi) |
| [西漢](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Han_dynasty#Western_Han) [隸](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clerical_script) | [午](https://i.sstatic.net/Ikn1J.png) | 秦射42 武威漢簡 |
| [楷](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regular_script) | [午](https://i.sstatic.net/ovH2S.png) |  |

「午」 originally depicted a large wooden [pestle](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mortar_and_pestle) used to pound or de-husk grainy foods such as rice. The word that 「午」 originally represented is now written as 「杵」, formed by adding semantic 「木」 (*wood*), and 「午」 forms or formed parts of other characters such as [「舂」 (picture](https://xiaoxue.iis.sinica.edu.tw/yanbian?kaiOrder=2335) of [*two hands* 「廾」](https://xiaoxue.iis.sinica.edu.tw/yanbian?kaiOrder=60) using a *pestle* 「午」 and [*mortar* 「臼」](https://xiaoxue.iis.sinica.edu.tw/yanbian?kaiOrder=438) > *to pound, grind*) and [「御」 (originally a picture](https://chinese.stackexchange.com/questions/12995/mnemonic-or-glyph-origin-for-%E5%BE%A1) of a [*kneeling person* 「卩」](http://xiaoxue.iis.sinica.edu.tw/yanbian?kaiOrder=21830) operating a *pestle* 「午」).

As mentioned earlier, 「午」 is a phonetically borrowed character for the word *noon*, as *pestle* does not have anything to do with *noon*.

> There is a peculiar pattern across several older characters: blobs on a vertical line tend to expand outwards into horizontal lines, and this is a simplistic description of what happened to the shape of 「午」 as well. You may check out the following glyph evolution tables for comparison:
>
> * [壬](https://xiaoxue.iis.sinica.edu.tw/yanbian?kaiOrder=111)
> * [十](https://xiaoxue.iis.sinica.edu.tw/yanbian?kaiOrder=18)
> * [土](https://xiaoxue.iis.sinica.edu.tw/yanbian?kaiOrder=40)

---

**References:**

* [漢語多功能字庫](https://humanum.arts.cuhk.edu.hk/Lexis/lexi-mf/)
* [小學堂字形演變](https://xiaoxue.iis.sinica.edu.tw/yanbian)
* [國學大師](http://www.guoxuedashi.com/)
  + [郭沫若《甲骨文合集》](http://www.guoxuedashi.com/jgwhj/)
  + [中國社會科學院考古研究所《殷周金文集成》](http://www.guoxuedashi.com/yzjwjc/)
* [宋・徐鉉等奉敕校定　漢・許慎《說文解字》](https://ctext.org/library.pl?if=gb&res=77351)


---

### Answer by username_6 on 2021-01-19. Score: 0

I can give you a general explanation of why many characters in Chinese look similar, but it is out of my reach to shed light on the details of this specific example.

The general reason comes because most literate individuals of Mandarin Chinese [know and use between 3,000 and 4,000 different characters](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_characters#Chinese), but all of these characters are built by combining only around [200 components](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radical_(Chinese_characters)#Variations_in_the_number_of_radicals) known as **radicals**. The situation is even more extreme as [the 10 most used radicals appear in 10,665 characters (or 23% of all the dictionary entries)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kangxi_radical#Statistics). Radicals often indicate the meaning of the character, known as the **semantic compound**, and / or the sound, known as the **phonetic compound**. In some cases, the original semantic or phonological connection has become obscure, even more as many characters have been modified and simplified over the years.

On practice, this means you will encounter many characters that look similar because they use the same radicals. The compositions of your example are (according to <https://en.wiktionary.org>):

* 午: 十 or 丿干.
* 年: 㐄 or 午 一丨 or 午丄.

Understanding the exact nature of the radicals might be difficult. In the wiktionary entries for these words you can find some explanations of their etymological origin. I suggest you look at them if you are interested.


---

