首都
しゅと · shuto · JLPT N3 · noun
city
🏛️ 首都 = head + metropolis: the head city of a country
首 (shu) means head or chief, as in 首相 (prime minister). 都 (to) means metropolis, as in 東京都 (Tokyo Metropolis) and 都会 (big city). The chief metropolis of a nation is its capital.
首 — hair 丷 over face 自 (eye + nose)
首 is a pictograph of a head, originally drawn with hair on top and a face below (containing the eye element 目). It meant 'head' literally, then extended to 'chief, leader, first' since the head is the topmost and foremost part of the body.
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.