在漢語里，經常和“星”字一起使用的有一個“辰”字。漢語中常常把星星叫作“星辰”。“辰”字早先的寫法是這樣的：

“辰”字的字形表示的是我們生活中經常看到的蚌。你看這個三角形不就是代表張開口的蚌殼嗎？三角形中間延伸出來的部分，就是伸出蚌殼的蚌體。古人常拿它來作為農業耕作中的工具。

那么天上的星星和辰是什么關系呢？其實它們之間一點關系也沒有。因為古代的時候，漢字里的“辰”字是這樣寫的：曟，上面的三個“日”字，就是我們剛才說過的古代的星字；下面的“辰”字，代表的是它的讀音。這樣兩部分合起來，就是星辰的“辰”字。后來這個字簡化了，上面的三個日字只剩下了一個：

這時它的意思也發生了變化，從表示“星辰”的意思變成表示“早晨”。“晨”字被早晨這個意思借走了，那么，“星辰”這個意思怎么辦呢？人們想了一個辦法，索性把下面那個表示蚌殼的“辰”字借來表示星星。然后又給蚌類這個意思的詞語另外造了一個“蜃”字。經過這樣一次大換位，最終形成了我們今天看到的局面：“蜃”表示蚌類動物，“辰”表示星星，“晨”表示早晨。正是因為漢字中的這種變化，有時把我們搞得一頭霧水。

“辰”字在現代漢語里的意思比較簡單，除了表示星星以外，它還表示時間，如有一個不太常用的詞語叫作“時辰”。

“星” is always used together with “辰”(shell), hence “星辰”, which refers to stars. The earliest form of “辰” was written as “”, which looks like a clam or mussel we often see in our daily life, and which was used to denote stars afterwards.

In addition to its meaning mentioned above, “辰” also denotes a length of time. In Chinese, there is an occasionally used term known as “時辰” , one of the 12 two-hour periods into which the day was traditionally divided, each given the name of one of the 12 Earthly Branches.

鏈接：“辰”作為偏旁組成的漢字不少，如：振、震、娠、蜃、宸、賑、裖、蜄、脤等，其中前六字比較常用。這些字中“辰”都表示讀音，也就是我們說的聲旁。不過這個字在漢語中代表著多個相近的讀音，上述這些字的讀音就分別有shèn、chén、zhèn等，這是從古到今語音演變的結果。

Linkage: “辰” serves as a component of quite a number of Chinese characters, including振,震, 娠, 蜃, 宸, 賑, 裖, 蜄, 脤, 祳, 莀, and桭, of which the relatively commonly used are振,震, 娠, 蜃, 宸, and賑. “辰” in these characters invariably denote their pronunciation, i.e. it serves as a sound-indicating component, as mentioned previously. However, it is to be noted that “辰”used as a component represents several different sounds, this is the result of its evolution in pronunciation from ancient to modern times.