Obviously
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The definition of 塊 on Goo is literally 「固まること。また、固まったもの。」. That’s interesting.
So now we even have recursive kanji origins. Nice.
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Leebo mentioned it, but I guess it wasn’t added… better late than sorry
So someone added 蘇る, from 黄泉返る (wrong かえる by the way). I thought it was weird that being resurrected meant returning to hell. But apparently it’s derived from 黄泉から帰る, which makes a lot more sense.
I wish everyone would post them and not just edit the OP. Otherwise we’ll miss opportunities to discuss them.
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I’ve actually noticed a few verbs recently that include かえる\がえる in the reading. Like like 覆る (くつがえる - I’ve been using the recent “Vans shoes always land on their feet” meme as a personal mnemonic) or 顧みる (かえりみる, which at least has the decency to mean "to look back on).
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Nice one! Feel free to add it to the OP.
I think we might need a way to start organizing this list since it’s getting so long. I didn’t expect there to be so many!
Oups, sorry 
So inspired by this topic I started to pay attention to single kanji words with long reading… and this morning I came across 蘇る (よみがえる to be revived/to be resurrected), the reading was so suspicious I immediately checked goo… and jackpot ! 黄泉帰る, what a cool origin, “Back from Hell”. (Also I didn’t know the name of japanese shinto version of Hell 黄泉 よみ)
Two interesting discovery :
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娘 and 息子 come from the same stem 生す 女/子 (生す = musu = grow)
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妹 and 弟 are also one of those “recursive kanji”, originally 妹人 and 弟人, but then the ひと part got fused in, with a sound change.
About 扉 from 戸片, this is the etymology provided by goo but I have to admit I don’t really understand what 戸片 could mean originally… According to jisho 片(びら) can mean bill; handbill; flier; flyer; leaflet; poster; placard…
栞 from 枝折り. So I guess, the original version of the bookmark was some twig folded 
Oh and finally I asked a japanese native about this whole phenomenon, to clarify if those kanji words derived from other words are completely transparent, or if it’s also surprising even to them…
And basically, when the original word is still an official reading, or if no sound change at all, yes it’s fairly transparent, but if there is some sound change, then it’s a bit more tricky. For example this person specifically recalled discovering by herself around elementary school the origin of 源 (水の本), without being taught. And finally a few of them was a big surprise even for her, like 蛍 = 火垂る and 妹=妹人
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I love words where 人 becomes うと or うど! (once you’re aware of this the readings are so much easier to remember)
Others I know of:
仲人 なこうど
素人 しろうと
玄人 くろうど
Probably loads more that I haven’t learned yet…
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You’ll learn 狩人 (かりゅうど) on WaniKani soon.
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Would watermelon being written as 水瓜 instead of 西瓜 count?
According to jisho.org, it’s a valid spelling. (And when you look at the standard readings of 水 and 瓜, it frankly just makes more sense.)
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That does kind of make sense, but I don’t think it fits in with the rest of the words here.
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Apparently it’s from 口縁 (くちへり). Never would have thought of that…
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Ooo, I was just gonna mention that. What’s with that freaky reading?
I wonder if there’s some ancient sound change going on. 人 does become ど for words like this, but I’m more interested in the first kanji.
- 狩人: 狩る (かる) somehow became かりゅう
- 仲人: 仲 (なか) somehow became なこう
- 玄人: 玄 (くろ) became くろう
- And I have no clue on 素人
The pattern is obviously that 人 is read ど and the う is added before it. It’s reasonable to see how かる (or かり if it’s the stem absorbed into the kanji) became かりゅ. Similarly it’s easy to see how なか could become なこ. But I really am curious where the う comes from and how 素人 became しろうと.
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It comes from not enunciating the ひ of ひと and just slurring the previous vowel sound longer. Remember, う after お is just a longer お, not an う.
Ah, that makes sense!