The word "何况" is formed through the conceptual combination of its two constituent characters: "何", which functions as an interrogative meaning "what" or "how", introducing a sense of questioning or reflection, and "况", which conveys the idea of "circumstance" or "situation", often with a comparative or escalatory nuance. When fused, they create a single unit of meaning that rhetorically sets up a more obvious or extreme situation against a stated one, essentially building a logical step that means "how much more so"... or "let alone"..., thereby extending or intensifying the preceding point through implied comparison.