The word 农民 (nóngmín) is formed by combining two independent characters, each with its own concrete meaning, to create a new, specific concept. The first character, 农 (nóng), fundamentally represents the idea of agriculture, farming, or working the land. The second character, 民 (mín), broadly means "the people" or a person of the populace. When placed together, they do not merely list two ideas but fuse them to conceptually define a specific type of person: "agriculture-people", or those whose identity and livelihood are intrinsically linked to cultivating the soil, hence, "farmer" or "peasant".