根源
gēnyuán · HSK 7
origin
🌱 根源 = root (根) + source (源); the root-source of something
根 means root (the 木 wood radical + 艮 phonetic). 源 means source or spring (the 氵water radical + 原 origin). Together: the root-and-spring origin of a thing — its deepest cause.
根 — tree radical 木 + 艮 (phonetic)
根 is a semantic-phonetic compound. The left side 木 ('tree') gives the meaning, since the character originally referred to the roots of a tree. The right side 艮 supplies the sound. From 'tree root' it extended to mean 'root, base, foundation' in general.