元来
がんらい · ganrai · JLPT N1 · adverb
originally
🌱 元 = origin + 来 = come: what comes from the origin is original, natural
元 is origin or base and 来 means come. Something that has come from its origin is in its original, natural state, so it means originally or naturally.
元 — 二 (two) + 兒 variant 儿 (legs/person)
元 originally depicted a person with the head emphasized on top, meaning 'head' or 'origin'. From this came the extended senses of 'first', 'beginning', and 'primary'. It was later borrowed as the name of the Yuan dynasty and the modern Chinese currency unit.
来 — pictograph of a wheat plant with grain heads
来 originally depicted a stalk of wheat with drooping grain heads, and meant 'wheat' in oracle bone script. It was later borrowed phonetically to write the unrelated verb 'to come,' which became its dominant meaning. The original 'wheat' sense was taken over by 麥 (now 麦).