四つ角
よつかど · yotsukado · JLPT N2 · noun
corner
🚦 四 (yon, four) + 角 (kado, corner): the four corners where roads meet
つ is a counter suffix, so 四つ means four in native Japanese counting. 角 means corner, so 四つ角 is a place with four corners, which is a crossroads.
四 — enclosure 囗 + divide 八
Originally 四 was written as four horizontal strokes (亖), a simple tally for the number four. The current form, showing 八 (divide) inside an enclosure 囗, was borrowed during the Zhou dynasty and gradually replaced the older tally form. The shape is unrelated to its meaning today.
角 — pictograph of a horn
角 is a pictograph of an animal's horn, with early oracle-bone forms clearly showing the curved, ridged shape of a horn. From 'horn' it extended to mean corner, angle, and by metaphor a role or part (as in a stage role). The reading jiǎo covers most of these senses.