寒天

Noun

 * 1) chilly weather; cold weather
 * 2)  winter

Usage notes

 * This is a more colloquial way to say “winter” than in Min Nan.

Etymology 1
From compound. Compare the modern 🇨🇬 hòn-thiên or 🇨🇬 kôaⁿ-thiⁿ.

Noun

 * 1) cold weather
 * 2) a wintry sky

Etymology 2
Kanten was discovered in roughly 1658 by innkeeper after discarding some  outside, and noticing that it had gelled overnight in the winter weather and then dried to a white powder over the next few days. According to various sources, the substance was called 寒天 by taking the first and last elements of the phrase (kan-zarashi tokoroten), literally “cold-exposed tokoroten”.

Noun

 * 1) agar, agar-agar: vegetable gelatine

Derived terms

 * : a thin sheet of dried kanten, used to add gloss to woven textiles and as decoration for women's braided hairstyles
 * : alternate name for, a sea vegetable from which kanten is made
 * : gelatinous connective tissue, a type of connective tissue found in invertebrate animals and in the early stages of vertebrate animal development
 * : agar culture medium
 * : an agar printing plate used for printmaking, basically identical to a gelatin printing plate