Meaning & readings
meadow, original, primitive, field, plain, prairie, tundra, wilderness
On’yomi ゲン
Kun’yomi はら
Nanori た、ばる、ら、わた、わら
Origin
The character 原 is built from a cliff or slope shape on the left, which suggests elevated terrain, combined with a component on the right that represents a spring or water source. Together, these elements evoke a natural, open area—specifically a grassy plain or meadow that sits at the foot of higher ground where water flows. This imagery of an untouched natural landscape led to the meanings of field and prairie, and later extended to the sense of "original" or "primitive," since such plains represent nature in its basic form.
Components
- 厂
- CDP-8BC4
Common words
Reference
- Strokes
- 10
- Kangxi radical
- 27
- Formation type
- Compound ideographic (combined meanings)
- Grade
- Grade 2 (Kyōiku)
- Frequency rank
- #172 (newspapers)
- Former JLPT
- level 2
- Unicode
- U+0539F