学时
xué shí · HSK 4
class hour
⏰📚 学时 = 学 (study) + 时 (time/hour)
Compound of 学 xué 'to study/learn' plus 时 shí 'time, hour'. Literally 'study-hour' — a class period or credit hour. Same 时 appears in 小时 (hour) and 时间 (time).
学 — hands 𦥑 + roof 冖 + child 子
Originally 學, depicting two hands manipulating something (often interpreted as counting rods or the 爻 trigram symbols) under a roof, with a child 子 below — a child learning under instruction. The simplified form 学 replaces the top with a stylized 龸. Core meaning has always been 'to study, learn'.
时 — sun 日 + temple/measure 寺
Originally a phono-semantic compound: 日 (sun) gives the meaning of time or season, while 寺 (shí) supplies the sound. Early forms used 之 as the phonetic before 寺 replaced it. The core sense 'season, time, hour' has stayed stable since ancient Chinese.