The word "北方" is formed through the direct, logical combination of two conceptual characters. The first character, "北", pictographically represents two people standing back-to-back, a traditional symbol for "north" (as the back side was associated with the cold, dark north). The second character, "方", depicts a plow or a square, conveying the core ideas of "direction", "region", or "area". Thus, the compound fuses the concept of "north" with the concept of "region/direction" to create the single, unified meaning of "the northern region" or "the north".