床屋
とこや · tokoya · JLPT N4 · noun
second
💈✂️ 床屋 = floor (床) + shop (屋): the floor-shop where hair falls
床 (toko) means floor or bed, 屋 (ya) is the shop suffix seen in 本屋 and 花屋. Edo-period barbers worked from simple raised-floor stalls called 床店 (tokomise), so the trade became toko + ya: the floor-stall shop.
床 — 广 (shelter) + 木 (wood)
床 combines 广 (a roof or shelter) with 木 (wood), depicting a wooden piece of furniture kept indoors. Originally it referred to a low wooden platform or couch used for sitting and sleeping. Over time the meaning narrowed mainly to 'bed,' though it still appears in compounds for table-like stands.
屋 — corpse 尸 + reach/arrive 至
屋 originally depicted a place where one arrives (至) to rest under a roof, with 尸 here representing a covering or dwelling rather than a corpse. The character came to mean 'house' or 'room'. Today it commonly refers to a house or a room within a building.