季節
きせつ · kisetsu · JLPT N4 · noun
season
🍂🌸 季節 = season + joint: the joints where the year bends
季 (ki) means season; 節 (setsu) means joint or node, originally the knots on a bamboo stalk. The year is divided at its joints into seasons. 節 also appears in 節分 (setsubun), the day marking a seasonal division.
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.