夜中
よなか · yonaka · JLPT N3 · noun
dead of night
🌙🕛 夜中 = night (夜 yo) + middle (中 naka): the middle of the night
夜 is night, read yo as in yoru, and 中 is middle, read naka as in 真ん中 mannaka. Put together, 夜中 means the middle of the night. It covers the dead of night in general, not only the stroke of twelve.
夜 — 亠 lid + 亻 person + 夕 evening moon
夜 originally depicted a person (亻) under a roof (亠) with the moon (夕) beside them, evoking nighttime rest. The moon component 夕 carries the meaning of evening, while the surrounding elements set the scene of a person at night. Over time it came to mean 'night' in general.
中 — vertical stroke 丨 through enclosure 口
Pictograph of a banner or pole piercing the center of a target or territory, depicting the idea of 'middle' or 'center'. The horizontal frame represents boundaries, and the vertical line marks the central axis. The meaning extended from spatial center to 'middle, central, China' (中国, the Middle Kingdom).