市民
しみん · shimin · JLPT N4 · noun
citizen
🏙️ 市民 = city (市) + people (民): the people of a city
市 means city or market, as in 市場 (market) and 京都市 (Kyoto City). 民 means the people, as in 国民 (a nation's people). So 市民 is literally city-people: a citizen or townsperson.
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).