荒らす

あらす · arasu · JLPT N1 · verb-godan

to damage

🏚 荒 (wasteland, wild) + らす (make) = make something a wasteland: damage or invade

The stem 荒れ (are, a wasteland or ruin) gets the causative らす, so you act to turn a place into a wasteland. Pests raid a garden, and invaders trash a town.

荒 — grass radical 艹 + 巟 (phonetic, 'vast/wild')
A semantic-phonetic compound: the grass radical 艹 on top gives the meaning of overgrown vegetation, while 巟 below supplies the sound and a sense of vast wildness. Originally it described land covered in wild weeds, then extended to 'wasteland,' 'desolate,' and figuratively 'absurd' or 'famine.'

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