都市
とし · toshi · JLPT N3 · noun
city
🏙️ 都 capital + 市 market = a big city, a market town grown into a capital
都 is the to of 東京都 (Tokyo Metropolis) and 京都 (Kyoto). 市 means market, and also city, as in 大阪市 (Osaka City). Put the capital and the market together and you get toshi, a city or something urban.
都 — 者 (phonetic) + 邑/阝 (city radical)
A semantic-phonetic compound. The right-side 阝 (a reduced form of 邑 'city, settlement') gives the meaning, while 者 supplies the sound. Originally it referred to a capital or major city, and later extended to mean 'all' or 'even' when read dōu.
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).