The word "winter" in modern Chinese is often used to express "winter" among the four seasons of the year. "Shuowen Jiezi" also says: "Winter is the end of the four seasons." It means that "winter" is the last season among the four seasons of the year. But this is already its borrowed meaning. The original meaning of "winter" should be "end", which means "end".
From the oracle bone inscriptions above, we can clearly see that the word "winter" is like a piece of silk or a rope with knots on both ends (two circles at both ends), which means "end", that is, The meaning of "end". However, the meaning of "winter" in the sense of "ending" was no longer used for a long time. Instead, it was borrowed to mean "winter" in "winter", and when it was used to express its original meaning of "end" or "end". , later generations added a word "糳" on the left side of the word "winter" and created a word "end" to express it. At this point, the words "winter" and "end" have a clear division of labor, and each represents its different meaning. Judging from the golden glyphs listed above, its font structure has undergone fundamental changes. It seems that the "日" (sun) is wrapped with something, indicating that it is not too warm, and the implication is that it is winter. When it came to Xiaozhuan, its shape changed a lot. Not only did the character "日" in the bronze script form be removed, but also the character "仌 (ice)" was added to the lower half, which made it even more aggravating. Winter means cold. By this time, the shape of the word "winter" that originally meant "end" and "end" has completely changed into the word "winter" that means "winter" that is chilling. This phenomenon of different ancient and modern characters that occurred during the development of Chinese characters is called ancient and modern characters in philology. This is the relationship between "winter" and "end".
The word "winter" is originally the word "end" of "end". You see how vivid the Oracle ① is, like a piece of silk or a rope, with knots on both ends, indicating the two tops, which means "end". And winter is the last season among the four seasons of the year, so the word "winter" is used to express it. So what should we do if we want to express the meaning of "the end"? In addition, the meaning "Si" was added next to the word "Winter" to create a new pictophonetic character "End". When it comes to Bronze Inscription ②, the shape has changed, and the character "日" is wrapped in a rope, which means that the sun is not too warm, so it also means winter. The shape of Xiaozhuan ③ has changed a lot. The word "日" in the bronze inscription has been removed and a word "仌" (ice) has been added under it. This change is quite interesting. Instead of the sun, you can only see ice. Of course, it is ice formed by dripping water. It's winter. The word "仌" should be a line drawn on the ground receiving sunlight formed by the western half of the sun shining in the morning and the eastern half of the sun shining in the afternoon. ④ is the shape of regular script. For the convenience of writing, the ice cubes at the bottom of Xiaozhuan ③ are changed to two "dots".
When "Dongdong" is used together, it has nothing to do with the meaning of "winter". It is a later onomatopoeia, such as Lu You's poem "Written on February 24th": "Tangli flowers bloom for wine. Nong, Nancun Bicun Gudongdong." But later, people created a new phonetic character "dong" with the upper shape (drum) and lower sound (dong), which means the sound of drumming. However, there are too many strokes and it is inconvenient to write. When simplifying Chinese characters, "Dongdong" was abolished and "Dongdong" was still used as onomatopoeia. "Dongdong" can also be used as a person's name.