Night

It means night in Chinese; in Japanese, usually early night. Chinese 宵 can mean night broadly or its first part. In Japanese, 宵 is read よい and refers to dusk or the opening part of night; 宵闇 means evening darkness, and 今宵 means tonight.

A form of 宵 is recorded on a bronze vessel from the early Western Zhou. Traditional character analysis connects 宀 with darkness beneath a roof and treats 肖 as the sound-bearing part.

Why does 宵 change meaning inside compounds?

The next characters make the night more specific. Chinese 宵夜 and 夜宵 are both late-night meals; 宵禁 is a curfew, and 通宵 means all night. Read each whole compound to see what the other characters add.

Japanese compounds use the same night word in other settings: 宵っ張り is someone who stays up late, while 宵の明星 is the evening star.

What does 宵 mean in a message?

It points to night or evening, but not a mood by itself. A one-character message gives little context beyond the night-related word; the surrounding message decides why it was sent.

If 宵 arrives alone, ask which word or topic the sender means before reading a personal tone into it.