The word "依山傍水" is formed by combining two parallel verb-object constructions: "依山" (yī shān), where "依" means "to rely on or be close to" and "山" means "mountain", and "傍水" (bàng shuǐ), where "傍" means "to be near or alongside" and "水" means "water"; these are concatenated to create a compound idiom describing a place situated near both mountains and a body of water.