中

Glyph origin
– a flagpole. Based on archaeological evidence, the middle box has been interpreted as a drum. This flagpole with a drum was placed in the center of a field to gather people and to detect the direction of the wind. In addition, the pronunciation of is reminiscent of the beating of a drum.

Shuowen interprets the character as a vertical stroke passing through the center of, indicating the center.

It has also been interpreted as an arrow in the center of a target.

Etymology
“Middle; centre” (Pronunciation 1) > “to hit the centre; to attain” (Pronunciation 2).

From. Cognate with 🇨🇬.

Related to:

Definitions

 * 1) middle; center
 * 2) medium; intermediary
 * 3) within; among; in
 * 4) while; in the process of; during; in the middle of
 * 5) to be fit for
 * 6) heart; innermost being
 * 7) intermediary
 * 8)  all right; OK
 * 9)  Used only in the abbreviation of the name.
 * 10) 1st tetragram of the Taixuanjing; "the center" (𝌆)
 * 1) while; in the process of; during; in the middle of
 * 2) to be fit for
 * 3) heart; innermost being
 * 4) intermediary
 * 5)  all right; OK
 * 6)  Used only in the abbreviation of the name.
 * 7) 1st tetragram of the Taixuanjing; "the center" (𝌆)
 * 1) heart; innermost being
 * 2) intermediary
 * 3)  all right; OK
 * 4)  Used only in the abbreviation of the name.
 * 5) 1st tetragram of the Taixuanjing; "the center" (𝌆)
 * 1)  Used only in the abbreviation of the name.
 * 2) 1st tetragram of the Taixuanjing; "the center" (𝌆)
 * 1)  Used only in the abbreviation of the name.
 * 2) 1st tetragram of the Taixuanjing; "the center" (𝌆)
 * 1)  Used only in the abbreviation of the name.
 * 2) 1st tetragram of the Taixuanjing; "the center" (𝌆)
 * 1) 1st tetragram of the Taixuanjing; "the center" (𝌆)

Definitions

 * 1) to hit the mark; to be correct; to be successful
 * 2) to be hit by; to suffer; to be affected by
 * 3) to win (a prize, a lottery)
 * 1) to be hit by; to suffer; to be affected by
 * 2) to win (a prize, a lottery)
 * 1) to win (a prize, a lottery)
 * 1) to win (a prize, a lottery)
 * 1) to win (a prize, a lottery)

Descendants
Others:

Etymology 1
From.

Noun

 * 1) the middle, medium
 * 2) an average, neither good nor poor mark
 * 3) the second volume of a three-volume set
 * 1) the second volume of a three-volume set
 * 1) the second volume of a three-volume set

Affix

 * 1) center, middle
 * 2) medium, intermediate, middle
 * 3) neutral, middle
 * 4) within
 * 5) among
 * 6) hitting
 * 7)  China, Chinese
 * 8)  junior high school student
 * 1)  junior high school student

Suffix

 * 1) during..., being in the process of doing...

Etymology 2
The form of chū above.

Suffix

 * 1) during, in the course of, throughout
 * 2) all over, everywhere
 * 1) all over, everywhere
 * 1) all over, everywhere

Usage notes
The distinction between the suffixes and  can be confusing:  means throughout, in all places, as in  or, while  means within, but not everywhere, as in. Contrast in “I worked on this all day long” with “I worked on this in class (but not necessarily for the entire time)”.

Etymology 5
Borrowing from.

Noun

 * 1)   a red dragon tile
 * 2)  a  with a meld of red dragon tiles, worth 1

Etymology 6
Various nanori readings.

Proper noun






Etymology
From.

Usage notes
In news headlines, this is usually written solely in the hanja form, even in contemporary Korean text otherwise devoid of any hanja.

Particle

 * 1) in; at; amid

Reconstruction notes

 * Conventionally reconstructed as *-kuy because Idu manuals in Han'gul read this character as, which is believed to reflect an ancient reading tradition. Middle Korean intervocalic /h/ is usually lenited from Old Korean */k/ based on internal and dialectal reconstruction. The non-lenited form also survives directly in pronouns: , , etc.
 * Assumed to be a logogram borrowed from Chinese, as no Chinese reading or native Korean equivalent of whose phonology is even remotely similar to *kuy is known. The Chinese word often bears a locative meaning as well, and there is a certain parallel in the Vietnamese Nôm use of the same character to write the native preposition.
 * First-millennium Old Korean also featured the locative particle . The two particles were compounded as as early as the seventh century. The compounded form becomes predominant in the corpus after the eleventh century, after which 中 *-kuy in isolation is rarely encountered (although a likely Middle Korean reflex is attested in Hangul form as late as the fifteenth century). The compounded form eventually fused into a single morpheme, becoming the Middle Korean locative particle.
 * At some point, perhaps even before widespread compounding, */k/ was lenited to */h/. Lenition may have begun as early as the eighth century, given the attestation of the form in the poem 讚耆婆郞歌 Changiparang-ga, whose claimed date of composition is 740.
 * Nam Pung-hyun suggests that, another apparent locative particle attested in the Old Korean corpus, should be connected to He classifies both as "uy-type locatives", in contrast to  as an "a-type locative", and speculates that the uy-type locatives were reserved for animate beings while  could be used indiscriminately.