太阳
tàiyáng · HSK 2
sun
☀️ 太阳 = 太 (great/supreme) + 阳 (yang/sun-side)
太 means greatest or supreme; 阳 is the sunlit side of a hill, the yang half of yin-yang. Together: the supreme bright thing in the sky — the sun. The meanings Apollo and daystar are poetic English glosses for the same celestial body.
太 — 大 'big' + extra dot 丶
太 originally derived from 大 ('big, person with arms outstretched') with an added stroke to mean 'greatest' or 'too much'. The extra dot intensifies 大, signaling something beyond merely big. Over time it came to mean 'very', 'too', or 'highest'.