青年
せいねん · seinen · JLPT N3 · noun
young person
🌱 青年 = green + years: someone still green in years
青 means blue-green, and in Japanese it also means unripe or inexperienced, like the English word green. 年 means year or age. Seinen is also the name of the manga genre aimed at young adult men.
青 — 生 (growth/sprout) on top + 丹 (well/cinnabar) below
青 originally depicted young plants (生) growing above a mineral pit (丹, cinnabar well), suggesting the fresh blue-green color of new growth and natural pigments. Over time it came to cover a range of cool colors—green, blue, and even black—and by extension means 'young' or 'youthful.'
年 — grain 禾 over person 人 (oracle bone)
Originally a pictograph of a person carrying a bundle of harvested grain on their back, representing the yearly grain harvest. Because harvests came once a year, the character shifted from meaning 'harvest' to meaning 'year.' The modern form 年 obscures the original 禾 (grain) + 人 (person) structure.