天

天 (Kangxi radical 37, 大+1, 4 strokes, cangjie input 一大 (MK), four-corner 1043₀, composition ⿱一大)

• 迗, 𣏿, 祆, 䀖, 䚶, 𠇄, 𠕹, 矢, 关, 吴, 昊, 奏, 癸, 龑(䶮), 𡗶, 吞, 㤁, 昋, 沗, 蚕, 奣, 䨿, 䪞, 鴌, 𠔬, 䵡, 䗞, 䘉
• 𠍴, 㴁, 𣷹, 㵄, 蝅, 蠺

• て (Hiragana character derived from Man'yōgana)
• テ (Katakana character derived from Man'yōgana)

• Kangxi Dictionary: page 248, character 4
• Dai Kanwa Jiten: character 5833
• Dae Jaweon: page 500, character 2
• Hanyu Da Zidian (first edition): volume 1, page 522, character 1
• Unihan data for U+5929

Historical forms of the character 天
Shang		Western Zhou		Spring and Autumn	Warring States			Shuowen Jiezi (compiled in Han)	Liushutong (compiled in Ming)
Bronze inscriptions	Oracle bone script	Bronze inscriptions	Oracle bone script	Bronze inscriptions	Bronze inscriptions	Chu slip and silk script	Qin slip script	Small seal script	Transcribed ancient scripts

A top line representing the level above a man with outstretched arms (大 (dà)). Ancient representations of the character depicted a man with a large head, an anthropomorphic representation of heaven.

Original meaning of the word is “sky”. Such concept is difficult to depict with a pictogram, hence the current form. Perhaps influenced by the glyph, the character was frequently glossed in Old Chinese documents with 顛 (“crown of the head”), and such had led to incorrect hypotheses which regarded 天 (tiān) as a derivation of 顛 or 巔, “top (of the head/hill)”.

This character was previously reconstructed to have a /*tʰ/-initial in Old Chinese, but this hypothesis has been largely discounted in recent reconstructions, in light of evidence from early Chinese accounts of dialectal pronunciations, transcription of other languages, as well as cognate/derived characters within Chinese, which has all pointed to a voiceless resonant initial /*l̥-/ in Old Chinese. According to chapter 1 of Shiming, by c. 200 CE, this initial had already produced dialectal variation in the pronunciation: People in central-western China pronounced it with the back of the tongue, like 顯 (MC xenX), while people in eastern China pronounced it with the tip of the tongue, like 坦 (MC thanX). An old northwestern dialect variant survives as 祆 (MC xen, “God of the Zoroastrians”), and the word 天竺 (MC then trjuwk, “India”) was used to transcribe Old Persian *Hind-uka ("India").

Further etymology is unknown. During the time when this term was reconstructed with a /*tʰ-/ initial, it was frequently compared with tengri, the name for God in early Turkic and Mongolic peoples' languages. This now appears unlikely. The only certain external cognate is the Central Bai (a language closely related to Chinese) word heinl (“sky, heaven”) /xẽ⁵⁵/. Chen (1998) proposes cognation with 祁連 (OC *g'ieg-lian) and 赫連 (OC *khak-lian), transcriptions of a Xiongnu word for "sky", which he also relates to 昊天 (OC *g'ôg-hlin).

天

1. sky; heavens; heavenly; celestial

   天空  ―  tiānkōng  ―  sky

   天黑了。  ―  Tiān hēi le.  ―  It's getting dark. (lit. The sky is becoming black)

2. (mythology or religion) heaven as the abode of the gods or the blessed departed; heavenly

   上天  ―  shàngtiān  ―  to go up to the sky; to go to heaven

   天意  ―  tiānyì  ―  Heaven's will

3. (mythology or religion) Heaven as an impersonal deity; often translated as God

   天主  ―  tiānzhǔ  ―  God (in the Catholic tradition)

   老天  ―  lǎotiān  ―  Heaven, Tian; God (Deity of the Zhou)

   我的天啊！  ―  Wǒ de tiān a!  ―  Oh my God!

   天助自助者。  ―  Tiān zhù zì zhù zhě.  ―  God helps those who help themselves.

4. top; overhead

   天橋／天桥  ―  tiānqiáo  ―  footbridge

   天窗  ―  tiānchuāng  ―  sunroof

5. weather; climate

   天很冷。  ―  Tiān hěn lěng.  ―  It's very cold.

   如果天晴，我們就去散步。 [MSC, trad.]
   如果天晴，我们就去散步。 [MSC, simp.]

   Rúguǒ tiān qíng, wǒmen jiù qù sànbù. [Pinyin]

   If the weather clears, we'll go for a walk.

6. day (24 hours)

   今天  ―  jīntiān  ―  today

   明天  ―  míngtiān  ―  tomorrow

   三天  ―  sān tiān  ―  three days

7. day (as opposed to night)

   白天  ―  báitiān  ―  daytime

   三天兩夜／三天两夜  ―  sān tiān liǎng yè  ―  three days and two nights

8. period of time in a day

   五更天  ―  wǔgèngtiān  ―  just before dawn

   天不早了。  ―  Tiān bù zǎo le.  ―  It's getting late.

9. season

   春天、夏天、秋天、冬天 [MSC, trad. and simp.]

   chūntiān, xiàtiān, qiūtiān, dōngtiān [Pinyin]

   spring, summer, autumn, winter

   黃梅天／黄梅天  ―  huángméitiān  ―  rainy season

10. nature

    天災／天灾  ―  tiānzāi  ―  natural disaster

11. natural; innate

    天生  ―  tiānshēng  ―  innate

    天性  ―  tiānxìng  ―  nature, personality

    天才  ―  tiāncái  ―  genius

12. (Hong Kong) Short for 天水圍／天水围 (Tiānshuǐwéi, “Tin Shui Wai”).