It’s incredibly easy to confuse these two compounds:
郷土 (kyōdo: native place, birthplace, old home) village + soil
郷士 (gōshi: squire, country samurai) village + samurai
But these words couldn’t be more different. They feature different on-yomi for the first kanji. And as for the look-alike characters, 土 (soil) gives off a down-to-earth feeling, whereas 士 has an elitist air. Indeed, this latter character can mean “warrior” or “scholar.” And the more I look at 士, the more I see a squire stretching his arms wide to show the full extent of his property. (This idea comes from my imagination, not from the actual etymology.)
Etymologically, 郷 also involved elitism of a sort. Henshall says the shape of this character has changed and changed. But in ancient times, it showed two “people” (that is, mirror-image squiggles) sitting on either side of food (represented by the currently trimmed-down version of 食 that we can see in the center). When two people met for dinner, it was often so that a superior and a subordinate could discuss important issues. That meaning led to the idea of feasting as a community. Eventually, 郷 came to symbolize the community itself.
And aha, I just realized (via Henshall) that the two shapes on either side of the “food” in the center are still more or less mirror images of each other. The similarity certainly doesn’t jump out at first glance (or second or third …).
