白天

Etymology & Components

The Chinese word 白天 (bái tiān) for "daytime" is composed of two characters: 白 (bái), meaning "white," and 天 (tiān), meaning "sky" or "heaven." The character 白 originally represented the sun, and was later used to refer to anything white or bright. The character 天 originally represented a person with their arms raised, and was later used to refer to the sky or heaven.When combined, the characters 白天 (bái tiān) literally mean "white sky," and refer to the time of day when the sky is bright. This is in contrast to the word 黑夜 (hēi yè), which means "nighttime" and literally means "black night."The word 白天 (bái tiān) is commonly used in everyday speech to refer to the daytime, and can also be used to refer to a specific period of time during the day, such as 上午 (shàng wǔ), which means "morning," or 下午 (xià wǔ), which means "afternoon."