街头
jiētóu · HSK 6
street
🛣️ 街头 = street + head — the head (front) of the street, i.e. the street corner
街 means street and 头 means head or tip. Together they point to where a street begins or turns — the corner or curb where the action is.
街 — 行 (go) + 圭 (jade tablets, phonetic)
街 is a semantic-phonetic compound. The outer 行 originally depicted a crossroads and gives the meaning 'road' or 'thoroughfare'. The inner 圭 supplies the sound. Together they denote a street or public way through a town.
头 — 页 (head/page) + 豆 (bean, phonetic)
The traditional form 頭 combines 頁 (xié), meaning 'head', with 豆 (dòu) as the phonetic component. 頁 itself originally depicted a person with an emphasized head. The simplified form 头 is a modern shorthand that replaces 豆+頁 with a simpler shape while keeping the same meaning of 'head' or 'top'.