四季
しき · shiki · JLPT N3 · noun
season
🌸🍁 四季 = four (四 shi) + season (季 ki)
四 is the number four, read shi. 季 means season, read ki, the same character found in 季節 (kisetsu, season). Put together: four seasons, spring, summer, autumn and winter.
四 — enclosure 囗 + divide 八
Originally 四 was written as four horizontal strokes (亖), a simple tally for the number four. The current form, showing 八 (divide) inside an enclosure 囗, was borrowed during the Zhou dynasty and gradually replaced the older tally form. The shape is unrelated to its meaning today.
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.