村

Phono-semantic compound:

木 (목, “tree”) - provides the meaning (trees, woods);

寸 (촌, “inch/joint”) - provides the sound.

村 originally implied “a place with trees and land marked off”—naturally extending to “village.”

村 was originally a simplified form of 邨.

邨 itself is also a phono-semantic compound, combining:

邑 (읍, “settlement”) - meaning;

屯 (둔, “to station troops”) - sound.

According to the Shuowen Jiezi, 邨 was the original head-entry character, glossed as a place name.

This suggests that the “village” meaning of 村 likely evolved later, as the simplified form took on a broader everyday usage.