Several parts combine into one character.

Phonetic-semantic compound: 里 (village / 1 li distance unit) + 予 (a phonetic). The encoded meaning: "what extends beyond the village" → wild fields / open countryside. From this physical image grew abstract senses: "untamed / wild / range / domain". The civilization-vs-wildness opposition is encoded directly. Identical across 繁體 / 新字体 / 简体.

Mandarin: yě, dipping 3rd tone. 野生 (yěshēng, wild — 野生动物 wild animals), 野心 (yěxīn, ambition — "wild heart", carries slightly negative connotation), 野餐 (yěcān, picnic — "wild meal"), 田野 (tiányě, fields), 视野 (shìyě, field of vision), 越野 (yuèyě, off-road / cross-country).

Japanese: on-reading ヤ (ya) — 野球 (yakyū, baseball — Japan's national sport, "field-ball"), 野菜 (yasai, vegetables — "field plants", THE everyday word for vegetables), 分野 (bun'ya, field of expertise / domain), 野心 (yashin, ambition), 平野 (heiya, plains), 視野 (shiya, field of vision). Kun-reading の (no) appears in geographical place names and poetry — 野原 (nohara, meadow), 上野 (Ueno, Tokyo neighborhood), 武蔵野 (Musashino, Tokyo region — "Musashi plains").

野球 (yakyū, baseball) — Japan's national sport — was named in 1895 by Chūman Kanae, who calqued "baseball" using 野 (field) + 球 (ball). The name has stuck as a Japanese-coined word that even Chinese eventually borrowed back as 野球. So 野球 is a Japanese loanword in modern Chinese.

野菜 (yasai, vegetables) is among the foundational food vocabulary every Japanese learner masters in the first weeks.

Memory aid: village + open extension = the open country beyond civilization.