one hour (archaic time unit)
Archaic term for a unit of time equal to one modern hour. Used in historical contexts, especially in reference to the traditional Japanese temporal system where a day was divided into 12 'hours' of varying length. Not used in contemporary Japanese; the modern word for 'one hour' is 一時間 (いちじかん).
In the Edo period, one 'koku' was about two hours, and 'tokinaka' was half of that.
Archaic kanji spelling for the historical time unit meaning 'one hour'. Not used in modern Japanese.
Variant archaic kanji spelling for the same historical time unit. Equally rare.
Compound of 時 (とき, 'time') and 中 (なか, 'middle' or 'half'), literally 'half of a time period'. The exact historical derivation is uncertain, but it likely referred to half of a traditional temporal unit (一刻).