次

Phono-semantic compound:

欠 (흠, “to yawn, lack”) – gives the meaning;

二 (이, “two”) – gives the sound.

Originally meant “at one’s own discretion”, but that sense was borrowed by 恣 (자 – to act willfully, to be self-indulgent).

Semantic development:

- abstract state — unregulated / arbitrary (original)

- phonetic borrowing — transferred to 恣

- ordinal meaning — next; second; sequence

- structural marker — order, iteration, ranking

Modern usage is entirely centered on order and succession.

次 is extremely common in numerical, procedural, and temporal expressions.

차례 (次例 / 次序) — order; turn

차수 (次數) — number of times; iteration

차석 (次席) — second seat; runner-up

차기 (次期) — next term

차등 (次等) — secondary grade

차원 (次元) — dimension

순차 (順次) — sequentially

Structural usage:

이번 → 다음 → 차차

제1차 / 제2차 — first / second (round, session, event)

In Korean, 次 often combines naturally with native words to form mixed vocabulary.

Related characters (order & sequence):

序 — order; arrangement

第 — ordinal prefix

等 — rank; class

先 — prior; before

後 — after

Among these, 次 is the most procedural and neutral, used to mark steps, rounds, or progression rather than hierarchy.

Characters with 次 as their phonetic element are generally read as 자 in Korean:

資 (재물 자) – wealth

姿 (모양 자) – appearance

恣 (마음대로 자) – willfully, self-indulgent

瓷 (사기그릇 자) – porcelain

Although Unicode encodes 次 as a single character, regional writing conventions differ in the treatment of the phonetic component:

Mainland China & Japan:

The 二 component is written in a form resembling 冫

Taiwan:

The 二 component is preserved explicitly

Korea:

The lower stroke of 二 is written diagonally, forming a distinct local style

These differences are orthographic, not semantic.