都市
dū shì · HSK 6
city
🏙️ 都 (capital) + 市 (market) = capital + marketplace = city
都 originally meant a capital or major city; 市 means market or marketplace. A 都市 is literally a capital-with-markets, i.e. a metropolis. Contrast with 城市 (walled-city + market), the more common everyday word for city.
都 — 者 (phonetic) + 邑/阝 (city radical)
A semantic-phonetic compound. The right-side 阝 (a reduced form of 邑 'city, settlement') gives the meaning, while 者 supplies the sound. Originally it referred to a capital or major city, and later extended to mean 'all' or 'even' when read dōu.
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).