他方
たほう · tahou · JLPT N1 · noun
side
他 — person radical 亻 + 也
Originally written 它, depicting a snake, and used as a general third-person pronoun. The person radical 亻 was later added to specify a human referent, while 也 serves as the phonetic component giving the sound tā.
方 — pictograph of a plow or two boats joined side by side
方 originated as a pictograph, traditionally interpreted as a plow handle or two boats lashed together. From the idea of paired boats it extended to mean 'side by side,' then 'square,' 'direction,' and 'region.' It was later borrowed for the abstract sense of 'method' or 'way.'