Explore each form from the oldest known stage to today.
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The kanji 候 originated in China during the Warring States period as a phono-semantic compound character. It is composed of a semantic element and a phonetic element. The left radical, the "human radical" 人 (亻), indicates a person. The right component, 侯, serves as the phonetic marker, guiding the pronunciation. Crucially, 侯 itself depicts an arrow (矢) shot at a target, symbolizing a feudal lord or marquis—a person of high status who was a "candidate" for audiences with the emperor or for specific roles. The character's evolution shows a clear semantic shift. Its primary ancient meaning was "to observe, to watch, to wait upon." This is directly linked to the idea of a retainer or an official observing the situation, waiting for a command, or serving a lord (the 侯). From this core meaning of "waiting upon" or "attending," the character naturally developed the meaning of "candidate" (one who waits for a position). The meanings related to "climate" and "weather" are a uniquely Japanese development. This occurred because the character was used to write the Japanese verb *sōrō*, a polite auxiliary verb and copula, which itself derived from the classical verb *saburahu* (to serve, to wait upon). This verb *saburahu* was homophonous with another verb meaning "to exist" or "to be," which was used in formal contexts to describe the state of the weather (e.g., "the weather is..."). Through this phonetic association in Japanese, the character 候 became firmly attached to the concept of weather. The character arrived in Japan around the 5th to 6th centuries CE, imported alongside the wider Chinese writing system, likely through Korean peninsula intermediaries. It was initially used for its Chinese meanings and for writing Japanese words phonetically or semantically. The key linguistic note is this Japan-specific semantic branching. While in modern Chinese, 候 retains meanings like "to wait," "season," or "inquire after," the strong connection to "candidate" and the primary meaning of "weather" are distinctive features of Japanese usage, a result of the character's adoption to write native Japanese words and its subsequent semantic evolution within the Japanese language.