间
jiān · HSK 1
room
🚪☀️ 门 (door) + 日 (sun) — sun seen between doors marks a space
间 originally showed 月 (moon) glimpsed through 门 (gate), later standardized with 日 (sun). The gap between the doors gives the core sense of interval, gap, or room — a bounded space between two things.
间 — gate 門 + sun 日 (originally moon 月)
Originally written 閒, showing the moon 月 shining through a gate 門 — the gap or space between the doors. The moon was later replaced by 日 (sun), giving the modern 间. The core meaning 'space/interval between' extended to time intervals, rooms, and the measure word for buildings.