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Do you know what this means?
四六時中
Kanji Breakdown
First, let's break down the kanji:
四
four
六
six
時
hour
中
during
So, you can plainly see this means "during 4-6 hours"! Easy.
Er... No.
But the real meaning is equally easy.
What is 4 x 6? 24.
How many hours are there in a day? 24.
Simply multiply 四 (four) x 六 (six) to get the 24 hours (時) in a day. The 中 simply means "all throughout" the day.
In other words, this means "all the time."
四六時中
"always" or "around the clock" or "day and night"
Yumi's Commentary
「四六時中」とは、「いつも、一日中、いつでも」という意味です。
Vocabulary
４
６
２４で２４時間を表しています。
Vocabulary
もともと江戸時代までは二六時中と言っていましたが、
Vocabulary
明治時代になって２４時間制が導入されると、四六時中という言い方に変わりました。
Vocabulary
江戸時代までは1日は１２刻で区切っていました。１刻は約２時間です。
Vocabulary
Edo Period Version
As Yumi mentioned, it wasn't always "4x6." In the Edo period, this saying was 二六時中.
But that's "2 x 6" and only comes to 12!
Correct.
During the Edo period in Japan, a day was divided into 12 periods known as "刻" (koku) which followed and were named after the 12 animals of the zodiac. This system of time-keeping was different from the modern 24-hour system we use today.
A single "刻" (koku) is approximately equivalent to two hours in the modern system, however, it's important to note that the length of a koku would change throughout the year. This is because the system divided daylight and night-time into six equal intervals each. As the length of daylight changes with the seasons, so too did the length of each koku.
For example, in the summer, when the days are longer, each of the six daytime koku would be longer than two modern hours, and each of the nighttime koku would be shorter. In the winter, the situation would be reversed, with shorter daytime koku and longer nighttime koku.
With the advent of the Meiji period and increasing Western influence, Japan switched to the more universally applied solar day, which led to the adoption of the 24-hour system that's used in most of the world today.
And that is why it changed from 二六時中 to the modern 四六時中!
Want more of these word origin lessons?
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