言葉
ことば · kotoba · JLPT N5 · noun
word
🍃 言葉 = say (言) + leaf (葉): words are the leaves of speech
koto (言, saying) + ba (葉, leaf, from ha). Old Japanese treated words as leaves sprouting from what is said, the same idea behind the poetry anthology Man'yoshu, the collection of ten thousand leaves.