仲 (zhòng) · second of three brothers, middle (of a season)

Meanings

1 second of three brothers
2 middle (of a season)
3 intermediate
4 (surname) Zhong

Characters

仲

zhòng

second; middle

Examples

HSK 4

他叫仲华，在家排行老二。

Tā jiào Zhòng Huá, zài jiā páiháng lǎo'èr.

He's called Zhonghua, the second-born in his family.

HSK 7-9

仲夏夜的星空特别美。

Zhòngxià yè de xīngkōng tèbié měi.

The starry sky on a midsummer night is especially beautiful.

Tips

history

In classical Chinese the four seasons each split into 孟 (first month) / 仲 (middle month) / 季 (last month), hence 仲夏 = midsummer (≈ June), 仲秋 = mid-autumn (≈ September). The same trio also names birth order: 伯/孟 = eldest, 仲 = second, 叔 = third, 季 = youngest. Confucius's courtesy name 仲尼 marks him as the second son.

memory

仲 = 人 (person) + 中 (middle). A person in the middle, the middle child or middle month.

Components

radical

亻 rén

person (radical form of 人)

Left person radical, the side form of 人. It indexes 仲 in the people-and-relationship family. 仲 names a specific position in the classical sibling ranking: 伯 (eldest), 仲 (second), 叔 (third), 季 (youngest). The radical marks this as a word about a person in a role.

phonetic

中 zhōng

middle

Right side 中 supplies the sound directly: zhōng → zhòng with the regular tone shift. 中 itself depicts a banner planted through the middle of a circle, the symbol of 'center.' Strongly semantic too: 仲 is the middle sibling, whose place sits squarely in the middle of the family lineup.