The word 别处 is formed by combining two pictorial and conceptual building blocks: the character 别, which in its earliest forms depicted using a knife to separate bones, carrying the inherent idea of "other" or "different", and the character 处 (處), which originally depicted a person perched on a stool, conveying the fundamental notion of a "place" or "location". When placed together, they create a direct, spatial compound where the concept of "other" modifies the concept of "place", resulting in the complete idea of "another place" or "elsewhere".