城市
chéng shì · HSK 3
city
🏙️ 城市 = wall/city + market = walled town with a marketplace
城 originally meant a city wall (土 earth + 成 complete), then the walled city itself. 市 means market. Together they name the urban settlement: a walled place with trade going on inside.
城 — earth radical 土 + 成 (to complete)
Originally a semantic-phonetic compound: 土 (earth) gives the meaning, since ancient cities were defended by rammed-earth walls, while 成 supplies the sound. The earliest meaning was 'city wall,' which later broadened to 'walled city' and then simply 'city' or 'town.'
市 — top 亠 + cloth 巾
Originally a pictograph of a marketplace banner or sign post above a stall, indicating a place of trade. The character came to mean 'market', and by extension 'city' or 'town', since markets were the centers of urban life. The modern form combines a top stroke with 巾 (cloth/banner).