春季
chūn jì · HSK 4
springtime
🌸 春 = spring + 季 = season; literally 'spring season'
春 means spring; 季 means season or quarter of the year. Together 春季 is the formal word for springtime, parallel to 夏季 (summer), 秋季 (autumn), 冬季 (winter).
季 — grain 禾 on top + child 子 below
Originally an associative compound showing young grain (禾) and a child (子), suggesting a young or immature crop. From this it came to mean 'youngest' among siblings, then a season or quarter of the year — a recurring period like a harvest cycle. Today it mostly means 'season' or a surname.