商店
しょうてん · shouten · JLPT N2 · noun
shop
🏪 商 = trade + 店 = store, so 商店 = a trade store, i.e. a shop
商 means trade or commerce, and 店 means store or shop. Joined, they name any place where goods are traded, which is why the word also covers a business firm.
商 — 亠 lid + 丷 + 冏 window/enclosure
In oracle bone script 商 depicted a raised platform or altar-like structure, and it served as the name of the Shang dynasty and its capital region. The modern components are a late simplification of that pictograph and carry no separate meaning. The sense 'trade, merchant' arose later, traditionally linked to Shang people who travelled to buy and sell after their dynasty fell.
店 — 广 (shelter radical) + 占 (zhān, phonetic)
店 is a semantic-phonetic compound. The radical 广 depicts a roof or open shelter, suggesting a building, while 占 supplies the sound (zhān → diàn). Originally it referred to a roadside inn or stall set up under a shelter, and over time the meaning narrowed to 'shop' or 'store'.