The word 乡村 is formed through the semantic combination of two individual characters, each contributing a core idea related to rural life. The first character, 乡 (xiāng), conceptually represents one's native place, homeland, or a general rural area. The second character, 村 (cūn), specifically denotes a village or hamlet as a settled community. When placed together, they create a composite concept where 乡 broadens the scope to the countryside and 村 specifies the type of settlement within it, fusing into a single term that comprehensively means "village and countryside" or simply "rural village", encapsulating the idea of non-urban life and landscape.