年初
niánchū · HSK 3
beginning of year
📅 年 (year) + 初 (beginning) = beginning of year
初 itself decomposes into 衤(clothes) + 刀(knife) — the original act of cutting cloth to start making a garment, hence beginning. So 年初 literally cuts open the new year.
年 — grain 禾 over person 人 (oracle bone)
Originally a pictograph of a person carrying a bundle of harvested grain on their back, representing the yearly grain harvest. Because harvests came once a year, the character shifted from meaning 'harvest' to meaning 'year.' The modern form 年 obscures the original 禾 (grain) + 人 (person) structure.
初 — clothes radical 衤 + knife 刀
初 combines 衤 (clothes) and 刀 (knife), depicting the act of cutting cloth to begin making a garment. From this concrete image of starting a tailoring task came the extended meaning 'beginning' or 'first'. It is an associative compound, not phonetic.