原
はら · hara · JLPT N3 · noun
field
🌾 Hara sounds like harrow, the farm tool dragged across an open field
The kanji is 厂 cliff + 泉 spring: water rising from under a cliff, which is why it also reads げん as in source or origin (原因). As はら it means the open plain that water runs out across, as in 原っぱ, an empty field.
原 — cliff 厂 + spring 泉 (white 白 + water 水)
Originally a pictograph showing a spring of water flowing out from beneath a cliff, depicting the source of a stream. From this concrete image of a water source, the meaning extended to 'origin,' 'source,' and 'original.' A separate character 源 was later created with the water radical 氵 to keep the literal 'spring' sense.