此时
cǐ shí · HSK 5
this moment
⏰ 此 (this) + 时 (time) = this time, right now
此 means this/here and 时 means time or hour (same 时 as in 时间 shíjiān, time). Together 此时 literally reads as this-time, meaning at this moment or right now.
此 — foot 止 + spoon/person 匕
此 originally depicted a person (匕) standing with a foot (止), suggesting 'to stop here' or 'this place.' Over time the meaning generalized from a specific location to the demonstrative pronoun 'this.' The foot component still hints at the original sense of standing in a particular spot.
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.