下町
したまち · shitamachi · JLPT N2 · noun
town
🏘️ 下 (below) + 町 (town): the low, older town, where the old quarters sit beneath the new
The 下 means 'below' or 'lower', and 町 means 'town'. Old parts of town were historically the lower-lying districts, so the word literally means the lower town.
下 — horizontal line 一 + mark below
下 is an indicative character: a long horizontal line represents a reference level, and a shorter stroke placed beneath it points to the area below. The original meaning 'below, down' comes directly from this spatial diagram, and it later extended to verbs like 'descend' and 'lower'.