迟

Étymologie et composants

The Chinese character 迟 (chí) is composed of two parts: the radical 日 (rì) and the phonetic component 止 (zhǐ). The radical 日 represents the sun, while the phonetic component 止 represents the act of stopping or halting. Together, these two components suggest the idea of "delay" or "lateness".The earliest known usage of the character 迟 dates back to the Shang dynasty (c. 1600-1046 BC), where it was used in the sense of "slow" or "late". Over time, the character took on additional meanings, including "to delay", "to be behind schedule", and "to be tardy".The character 迟 is also used in a number of idioms and proverbs. For example, the idiom 迟到早退 (chídào zǎotuì) means "to be late for work and leave early", while the proverb 宁可早到一刻，不可迟到一分钟 (níngkě zǎodào yīkè, bùkě chídào yī fēnzhōng) means "it's better to be a minute early than a minute late".In modern Chinese, the character 迟 is commonly used in everyday speech and writing. It is a versatile character that can be used in a variety of contexts to express the idea of "delay" or "lateness".