日
This character has the basic meaning of “sun.”
Originally, it looked more like this, but after going through layers of abstraction, it became the form we use today in Chinese, Japanese, and Korean.
In Korean, we read it as “일.”
In Chinese, it’s read “rì.”
As for Japanese, its reading changes depending on the context, and honestly, I don’t know Japanese well enough to pretend I do, so I won’t.
Now, where does the Korean reading come from?
Korean Sino-readings were formed by reading Classical Chinese and Buddhist texts in a Koreanized pronunciation. Over time, those readings settled into what we now call Sino-Korean vocabulary.
And the Sino-Korean words used today aren’t just from ancient Chinese.
They include:
- Words historically borrowed from Chinense,
- Words that came through Japanese when Japan opened to the West, and
- Words Korean coined on its own using Chinese characters.
So a Korean Sino-word doesn’t always match the Chinese or Japanese equivalent one-to-one.
Anyway, back to the character 日 (일).
Since its core meaning is “sun,” tons of vocabulary were built from it.
Here are just a few:
- 일본 (日本) Japan
- 일요일 (日曜日) Sunday
- 매일 (每日) everyday
- 일기 (日記) diary
- 생일 (生日) birthday
- 내일 (來日) tomorrow
- 휴일 (休日) holiday
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