大空
おおぞら · oozora · JLPT N1 · noun
eden
☁️ 大空 = 大 (big) + 空 (sky): a big sky, the wide open heavens
Compound: 大 (おお, great) added to 空 (そら, sky) gives おおぞら, the vast sky. Drop the 大 and you have the everyday word for sky.
大 — pictograph of a person with arms outstretched
大 is a pictograph showing a person standing with arms and legs spread wide. The outstretched arms suggest 'big' or 'great', extending from the literal image of a large stance to abstract meanings like important or grand. It is one of the oldest characters, found on oracle bones.
空 — cave radical 穴 + 工 (phonetic)
Originally a phono-semantic compound: 穴 (cave, hole) gives the meaning of emptiness or hollow space, while 工 supplies the sound. The earliest sense was 'hole' or 'cavity,' which extended to 'empty,' 'sky,' and 'in vain.' The reading kòng (4th tone) specifically means 'free time' or 'vacancy.'