The word "人工" is formed through the direct and conceptual combination of its two component characters: "人" (rén), meaning "person" or "human", and "工" (gōng), meaning "work", "labor", or "craft". By placing these ideas side-by-side, the compound creates a new, integrated concept that points to something originating from or performed by human effort, as opposed to occurring naturally. It essentially visualizes the notion of "human work" to convey meanings like "man-made", "artificial", or "manual labor", where the whole meaning emerges from the simple, logical fusion of "person" and "work".