According to my Anki Deck it can mean “ahead, before, future, and previous”. Those are literally the opposite of each other lmao. I don’t even know how you’d gather that from context clues.
Wow, this actually made me to think. I am a native speaker, and never had problem with understanding this concept, but I can see how confusing it is to non natives.
I would love to explain it, but I think I totally fail, my English isn’t good enough to explain. So, like OP, I’d love to see the explanation by someone capable in English.
Ahead and before are not directly opposing.
“I did it ahead of time” and “I did it beforehand” both indicate that you did something before it was really necessary.
I am not confident in all the usages of 先, but when used as a noun it will usually mean “future”. When used as a time indicator it will usually mean “before”, unless it is used as これから先 or この先, in which case it will refer to a future event.
If you imaginge a line of things. 先 mean the one in the front. If you relate it to something you kind of mean “first in line compared up to that” so it means before that. In time generally this means the past as in 先 happened first so it happend before everything else. This is my understanding.
They’re just different definitions/uses of the word. It’s not too different from English. We have a lot of apparently conflicting definitions of words.
“Before” means in the past. Or you could think of it as being behind the present.
But a person could get to be some place before you. Or they could be before you in line. Meaning that they are ahead of you. The front of a ship is “the fore”.
先 is similar where it can refer to the past/a previous occurence. Or it can refer to the physical space in front of something. Or it can be the tip of something like a body part (指先).
Language is not always literal, so I assume it’s this spacial definition which has caused it to take on so many figurative meanings. Since future could be considered to be ahead of one it’s not really a stretch that 先 refers to the future as well.
In the phrases “that thing I told you before” and “the path that lies before us”, are you confused about the meaning of “before”?
Just accept it as one of the interesting things about Japanese, it can look like a schizophrenic language at first (even more so than most other languages), but you get used to it. I don’t think 先 confuses me anymore, so it’ll become second-nature to you as well.
Because it depends on the point of reference to derive the meaning. “Before” functions in a similar manner. If you are born “before” me the reference is to the past, as in you are older than I am. If I leave the party before you, again with a point of reference, I am leaving the party earlier than you are. So I am ahead of you in the chronological order of “first to last to leave the party.” If you want a reference to the future then, “I am going to leave the party ‘before’ everyone else.” And now you’ve made a reference to an action in the future. All examples using the same word (before).
The same thing is happening here with 先。
I think what a lot of answers here are missing is that you are trying to fit an English/Western constructionist language model onto a a different language model and now you are finding the edge cases of the limitation of that mapping.
In corner cases like this sometimes it helps to instead ask the question: “if I were born Japaneae how may I come to understand this word?” Rather than “how can I explain it in my English syntax and viewpoint of the world”.
In this case imo sometimes the only way forward is two steps back and to remove your assumptions on how the world should be explained through your eyes, and really try to force a pure empathy, like “of course! How could it be any other way!”
Anyway, I haven’t looked it up, but my immediate assumption why this kanji is the way that it is, is that it probably derives from the strong Zen/Buddhist historical underpinnings of the Japanese culture, and by extension the older forms of Kanji brought over from China via Chan Buddhism and also Daoist cultural.thought an expression, and perhaps with some roots in the implied Hindu expression of time, which is fundemantally non linear
In these cultures, and philosophies time doesn’t necessarily have to work in a linear: a before b before c fashion. Rather, as in the case with meditation driven practices there is “present-ness” and “non-presentness” and this kanji reflects an understanding of time that is simply removed relative to oneself. But in which direction? Well once again this a very Western model of constructionist thought. Rather you must allow the context of the sentence to enforce an understanding of the implied meaning — which is much like many other things in Japanese. And it’s hard. That’s why scholars can argue for days on the exact meanings of characters in Early Buddhist Chan texts. Even the kanji 無 has an entire book written about what it meant, when used in a specific koan, from a Zen master.
Therefore This latter part problem will be solved for you from repetition in using it for different situations and developing an understanding on how certain societal modern conventions dictate it’s implied usage.
But yes in a vaccumm, without its history/culture and additional context, and with coming from it with a very different model for language thought, and expression it “appears” rather contradictory.
So i’d say for this Kanji think of it as the idea of “there is now, and then there is a not now, and I am referring to a not – nowness, and will allow the rest of the sentence+agreed upon societal understanding of sentence structures and cultural norms to let you know what I mean”.
In my experience, the best way to think of the definition of 先 is “forward of”. That pretty much covers all of the seemingly contradictory uses of the word.
さき⓪ 【先】
㊀細くて△長いもの（長くとがったもの）の端の部分。
「鼻の先〔=突端〕」
「行列の先〔=先頭〕」
㊁〔本拠地から離れた人が〕そこへ赴いて何らかの行動をとる場所や、交渉を持つ当の相手。
「先のある話だから」
「先様次第だ」
「△勤め（届け・得意・取引）先」
㊂時間・順序の上で、「前マエ一㊁㊂」に位置すること。
「先に〔=前もって〕手配をする」
「何より先〔=第一番〕に水をくめ」
「あとにも先〔=以前〕にも」
「先〔=行列の先払い〕を務める」
↔あと
㊃時間・順序の上で、これから展開する方（にあるもの）。
「話の先を忘れる」
「先〔=将来〕が思いやられる」
「先に延ばす」
「先の長い計画」
「まだ先の話」
「先へ先へと気を回す」
「…しない先に〔=時間的に…するより前に〕」
↔あと
English has words with contradictory meanings, too. They’re called contranyms:
Doesn’t the English word “before” mean in front and also earlier. Words can be used in different contexts and be used differently with no confusion.
Prime example of this is “to go off” which can mean “to turn on” but also “to turn off”
The lights went off (it’s now dark) The alarm went off (the alarm started)
I really would recommend reading the kanji in context. I often see people ploughing through an Anki deck with just a single kanji on the Flashcard. This will not help you to fully absorb its meaning.
Find some easy reading materials. I started reading the novelisations of Disney movies in Japanese and that helped.
I think Japanese and probably more Asian languages tend to think of distances radially rather than linearly. So like, relative to the vicinity of the observer in the area in all directions. So 先 can be either ahead or behind in terms of both place or time, but still local enough to be within proximity, if that makes sense. If anyone can give a more comprehensive explanation on the thought process behind it I’d love to hear it because I’m still mostly just speculating.
For the “before” comparisons people are using, I believe 前 corresponds a little more closely with that as it’s more directly about ordering and placement.
also be careful trying to attribute strict meanings to kanji characters, they aren’t words, and words are not always a sum total of their letters any more than a kanji character is always the sum total of the vague meanings of it’s components. in addition, there are plenty of examples in english where a root element of a word imparts different assumptions about a word, like “in” in inaccessible meaning “non”, but in “inflammable” meaning the opposite.
The kanji “先” originally meant ‘to be positioned at the front of a direction’ in Chinese. Over time, its meaning evolved and became associated with placement (like in 先端 and 舌先), ordering (such as 先頭 and 先発), and time (for example, 先日 and 先祖).
When it comes to time, “先” pronounced as “sen” always refers to the past. This is because people used to think of looking back in time as a direction.
Some examples include: 先祖 (senzo): ancestors 先刻 (senkoku): a while ago 先代 (sendai): previous generation 先日 (senjitsu): the other day
However, when “先” is pronounced as “saki,” it can mean both the past and the future, depending on the pitch accent (usually it means in the future). This is because “先” was adopted for use in Japanese for “さき,” which could mean both the past and the future. If it’s used for the past, the “SA” part has a higher pitch; otherwise, it uses a flat tone.
Some examples include: この先 (kono saki): in the future 先延ばし (sakinobashi): procrastination 先の大臣 (SAki no daijin): former minister 先の大戦 (SAki no taisen): WW2
EDIT: This response isn’t really right, see the response below.
A lot of replies here are good, but I don’t think any mentioned the actual root meaning of the kanji 先 and the native word さき：it’s most literally a point, or a tip, e.g. of a spear or a knife or some other pointed object. This has been generalized into basically the “front end” of anything, but when your metaphorize this onto a time axis, it can end up meaning the first thing that happened (i.e. farthest in the past), or the farthest in the future. It’s the “tip” of some time scale either way.
These words mean the same thing in English. “The future lies before you.”
As for the kanji, other cool answers are here.
I’d point out, btw, that English has words which are their own opposites too, such as:
* the verb “to dust” (which can either mean to add fine particles – “lightly dust the area with powder” – or to remove fine particles – “I’m going to dust the house now”), * the verb “to give out” (produce – “I’ll give out the books now” – or to stop production – “The field gave out”), * the adjective “off”, which can either mean off (“The alarm is off”) or on (“The alarm went off”)…
your anki deck is not japanese language man stop following advice from this subreddit and from japanese learners on the internet in general
先 is something that is before something else, either in time or space. Ahead, before, and previous are not opposites. Temporally speaking, if you do something “ahead of this”, “before this”, or “previous to this”, then that all means the same thing, right? Spatially speaking, someone that is ahead of you is also before you and previous to you. As for the future, this is where it gets tricky. You can speak **spatially** about the temporal nature of time. We do this in English as well: While temporally speaking, what is before any specific point in time is the past. However, because a person is always progressing through time in one direction, what is before a person is the future. You face the future and are always going toward it. It is ahead of you. Your future is **before** you. The same is true in Japanese.
You’ll find similar thinking surrounding uses of 前 and 後
The word you’re looking for is “contranym”, ie. words that mean their opposite depending on context.
23 comments
Wow, this actually made me to think. I am a native speaker, and never had problem with understanding this concept, but I can see how confusing it is to non natives.
I would love to explain it, but I think I totally fail, my English isn’t good enough to explain. So, like OP, I’d love to see the explanation by someone capable in English.
Ahead and before are not directly opposing.
“I did it ahead of time” and “I did it beforehand” both indicate that you did something before it was really necessary.
I am not confident in all the usages of 先, but when used as a noun it will usually mean “future”. When used as a time indicator it will usually mean “before”, unless it is used as これから先 or この先, in which case it will refer to a future event.
Check this out for more fulfilling answers: https://japanese.stackexchange.com/questions/16017/i-am-struggling-with-the-sometimes-conflicting-uses-of-%E5%85%88
If you imaginge a line of things. 先 mean the one in the front. If you relate it to something you kind of mean “first in line compared up to that” so it means before that. In time generally this means the past as in 先 happened first so it happend before everything else. This is my understanding.
They’re just different definitions/uses of the word. It’s not too different from English. We have a lot of apparently conflicting definitions of words.
“Before” means in the past. Or you could think of it as being behind the present.
But a person could get to be some place before you. Or they could be before you in line. Meaning that they are ahead of you. The front of a ship is “the fore”.
先 is similar where it can refer to the past/a previous occurence. Or it can refer to the physical space in front of something. Or it can be the tip of something like a body part (指先).
Language is not always literal, so I assume it’s this spacial definition which has caused it to take on so many figurative meanings. Since future could be considered to be ahead of one it’s not really a stretch that 先 refers to the future as well.
In the phrases “that thing I told you before” and “the path that lies before us”, are you confused about the meaning of “before”?
Just accept it as one of the interesting things about Japanese, it can look like a schizophrenic language at first (even more so than most other languages), but you get used to it. I don’t think 先 confuses me anymore, so it’ll become second-nature to you as well.
Because it depends on the point of reference to derive the meaning. “Before” functions in a similar manner. If you are born “before” me the reference is to the past, as in you are older than I am. If I leave the party before you, again with a point of reference, I am leaving the party earlier than you are. So I am ahead of you in the chronological order of “first to last to leave the party.” If you want a reference to the future then, “I am going to leave the party ‘before’ everyone else.” And now you’ve made a reference to an action in the future. All examples using the same word (before).
The same thing is happening here with 先。
I think what a lot of answers here are missing is that you are trying to fit an English/Western constructionist language model onto a a different language model and now you are finding the edge cases of the limitation of that mapping.
In corner cases like this sometimes it helps to instead ask the question: “if I were born Japaneae how may I come to understand this word?” Rather than “how can I explain it in my English syntax and viewpoint of the world”.
In this case imo sometimes the only way forward is two steps back and to remove your assumptions on how the world should be explained through your eyes, and really try to force a pure empathy, like “of course! How could it be any other way!”
Anyway, I haven’t looked it up, but my immediate assumption why this kanji is the way that it is, is that it probably derives from the strong Zen/Buddhist historical underpinnings of the Japanese culture, and by extension the older forms of Kanji brought over from China via Chan Buddhism and also Daoist cultural.thought an expression, and perhaps with some roots in the implied Hindu expression of time, which is fundemantally non linear
In these cultures, and philosophies time doesn’t necessarily have to work in a linear: a before b before c fashion. Rather, as in the case with meditation driven practices there is “present-ness” and “non-presentness” and this kanji reflects an understanding of time that is simply removed relative to oneself. But in which direction? Well once again this a very Western model of constructionist thought. Rather you must allow the context of the sentence to enforce an understanding of the implied meaning — which is much like many other things in Japanese. And it’s hard. That’s why scholars can argue for days on the exact meanings of characters in Early Buddhist Chan texts. Even the kanji 無 has an entire book written about what it meant, when used in a specific koan, from a Zen master.
Therefore This latter part problem will be solved for you from repetition in using it for different situations and developing an understanding on how certain societal modern conventions dictate it’s implied usage.
But yes in a vaccumm, without its history/culture and additional context, and with coming from it with a very different model for language thought, and expression it “appears” rather contradictory.
So i’d say for this Kanji think of it as the idea of “there is now, and then there is a not now, and I am referring to a not – nowness, and will allow the rest of the sentence+agreed upon societal understanding of sentence structures and cultural norms to let you know what I mean”.
In my experience, the best way to think of the definition of 先 is “forward of”. That pretty much covers all of the seemingly contradictory uses of the word.
さき⓪ 【先】
㊀細くて△長いもの（長くとがったもの）の端の部分。
「鼻の先〔=突端〕」
「行列の先〔=先頭〕」
㊁〔本拠地から離れた人が〕そこへ赴いて何らかの行動をとる場所や、交渉を持つ当の相手。
「先のある話だから」
「先様次第だ」
「△勤め（届け・得意・取引）先」
㊂時間・順序の上で、「前マエ一㊁㊂」に位置すること。
「先に〔=前もって〕手配をする」
「何より先〔=第一番〕に水をくめ」
「あとにも先〔=以前〕にも」
「先〔=行列の先払い〕を務める」
↔あと
㊃時間・順序の上で、これから展開する方（にあるもの）。
「話の先を忘れる」
「先〔=将来〕が思いやられる」
「先に延ばす」
「先の長い計画」
「まだ先の話」
「先へ先へと気を回す」
「…しない先に〔=時間的に…するより前に〕」
↔あと
English has words with contradictory meanings, too. They’re called contranyms:
https://www.merriam-webster.com/words-at-play/words-own-opposites
Doesn’t the English word “before” mean in front and also earlier. Words can be used in different contexts and be used differently with no confusion.
Prime example of this is “to go off” which can mean “to turn on” but also “to turn off”
The lights went off (it’s now dark)
The alarm went off (the alarm started)
I really would recommend reading the kanji in context. I often see people ploughing through an Anki deck with just a single kanji on the Flashcard. This will not help you to fully absorb its meaning.
Find some easy reading materials. I started reading the novelisations of Disney movies in Japanese and that helped.
While in Japan I also found a version of Harry Potter with all of the furigana in it which REALLY helped me to process everything. It looked like this: https://pictures.abebooks.com/isbn/9784863892316-us.jpg
I think Japanese and probably more Asian languages tend to think of distances radially rather than linearly. So like, relative to the vicinity of the observer in the area in all directions. So 先 can be either ahead or behind in terms of both place or time, but still local enough to be within proximity, if that makes sense. If anyone can give a more comprehensive explanation on the thought process behind it I’d love to hear it because I’m still mostly just speculating.
For the “before” comparisons people are using, I believe 前 corresponds a little more closely with that as it’s more directly about ordering and placement.
also be careful trying to attribute strict meanings to kanji characters, they aren’t words, and words are not always a sum total of their letters any more than a kanji character is always the sum total of the vague meanings of it’s components. in addition, there are plenty of examples in english where a root element of a word imparts different assumptions about a word, like “in” in inaccessible meaning “non”, but in “inflammable” meaning the opposite.
The kanji “先” originally meant ‘to be positioned at the front of a direction’ in Chinese. Over time, its meaning evolved and became associated with placement (like in 先端 and 舌先), ordering (such as 先頭 and 先発), and time (for example, 先日 and 先祖).
When it comes to time, “先” pronounced as “sen” always refers to the past. This is because people used to think of looking back in time as a direction.
Some examples include:
先祖 (senzo): ancestors
先刻 (senkoku): a while ago
先代 (sendai): previous generation
先日 (senjitsu): the other day
However, when “先” is pronounced as “saki,” it can mean both the past and the future, depending on the pitch accent (usually it means in the future). This is because “先” was adopted for use in Japanese for “さき,” which could mean both the past and the future. If it’s used for the past, the “SA” part has a higher pitch; otherwise, it uses a flat tone.
Some examples include:
この先 (kono saki): in the future
先延ばし (sakinobashi): procrastination
先の大臣 (SAki no daijin): former minister
先の大戦 (SAki no taisen): WW2
EDIT: This response isn’t really right, see the response below.
A lot of replies here are good, but I don’t think any mentioned the actual root meaning of the kanji 先 and the native word さき：it’s most literally a point, or a tip, e.g. of a spear or a knife or some other pointed object. This has been generalized into basically the “front end” of anything, but when your metaphorize this onto a time axis, it can end up meaning the first thing that happened (i.e. farthest in the past), or the farthest in the future. It’s the “tip” of some time scale either way.
These words mean the same thing in English. “The future lies before you.”
As for the kanji, other cool answers are here.
I’d point out, btw, that English has words which are their own opposites too, such as:
* the verb “to dust” (which can either mean to add fine particles – “lightly dust the area with powder” – or to remove fine particles – “I’m going to dust the house now”),
* the verb “to give out” (produce – “I’ll give out the books now” – or to stop production – “The field gave out”),
* the adjective “off”, which can either mean off (“The alarm is off”) or on (“The alarm went off”)…
…and many more! These words are called [auto-antonyms](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Auto-antonym) (or contronyms) and there are a bunch of them.
> According to my Anki Deck
your anki deck is not japanese language man stop following advice from this subreddit and from japanese learners on the internet in general
先 is something that is before something else, either in time or space.
Ahead, before, and previous are not opposites. Temporally speaking, if you do something “ahead of this”, “before this”, or “previous to this”, then that all means the same thing, right? Spatially speaking, someone that is ahead of you is also before you and previous to you.
As for the future, this is where it gets tricky. You can speak **spatially** about the temporal nature of time. We do this in English as well: While temporally speaking, what is before any specific point in time is the past. However, because a person is always progressing through time in one direction, what is before a person is the future. You face the future and are always going toward it. It is ahead of you. Your future is **before** you. The same is true in Japanese.
You’ll find similar thinking surrounding uses of 前 and 後
The word you’re looking for is “contranym”, ie. words that mean their opposite depending on context.
Here are some English ones:
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Appendix:English_contranyms
Ahead = in front of you
Before = something done ahead of time
Future = the time ahead of you
Previous = that that came before the current