午wǔ

午

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Simplified · Today

简体

Simplified Chinese

Simplified form (簡體). 午 (wǔ, "noon") appears unchanged from its traditional counterpart — the character originally depicted a pestle pounding in a mortar, the same pictograph seen in 舂, though over time the tool image was repurposed to mark the midday hour and the seventh of the twelve Earthly Branches.

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Shuowen

午. The pictogram of a wooden pestle or club — a vertical shaft with a curved, weighted head used for grinding grain in a mortar. This agricultural tool gave the character its original meaning, and through phonetic extension it came to denote the eleventh of the twelve earthly branches, the time of midday.

Pinyin

wǔ· HSK 1

午wǔ

Character evolution

Shuowen

Pinyin