原始
げんし · genshi · JLPT N2 · noun
beginning
🦕 原 = origin + 始 = beginning; together, the very first beginning, primeval
原 means source or origin, and 始 means start or beginning. Put together they name the earliest stage of something. Its sound, genshi, is close to the English word genesis, which also means a beginning.
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.