市
し · shi · JLPT N4 · noun
city
🏙️ Etymology: 市 first meant market; a busy market grows into a city
市 originally meant a marketplace, a sense kept in 市場 (shijō, market). Towns grew around markets, so the word widened to city. As a suffix it names cities: 京都市 (Kyōto-shi) = Kyoto City. Sound hook: shi starts like the ci- in city.
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).
いち · ichi · JLPT N3 · noun
market
🏪🧺 市 = 亠 lid + 巾 cloth: cloth hung under an awning, a market stall
Ichi sounds like itchy, as in itchy to buy at the fair. Ichi also means one (一), so the market is the number-one place to shop. In compounds 市 is read shi, as in 都市 toshi (city), since towns grew around markets.
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).