市

Ideogrammic compound:

金文 (bronze script): composed of 止 (“to go”) + 兮 (“to call out, cry”) → depicting people going to a place and calling out to buy or sell goods.

Thus, the character originally meant “a place where people gather to trade.”

Frequently appears in personal and place names, as well as administrative divisions (e.g., “시/市” for “city”).

市場 (시장) — marketplace

市內 (시내) — downtown, inner city

市民 (시민) — citizen

都市 (도시) — city, metropolis

市長 (시장) — mayor

柿, 鈰 (铈), 鬧/ 閙 (闹), 沛

Note on distinction:

市 (저자 시) is different from 巿 (슬갑 불).

Because their forms look very similar, they were historically confused, and 巿 was sometimes used interchangeably with 市.

Words like 肺 (폐, lung) or 沛 (패, marsh) derive from 巿 as phonetic, not from 市.

Structure: 市 is ⿱亠巾 (5 strokes), while 巿 is ⿻一巾 (4 strokes). Some fonts blur this distinction.