The Chinese word 印刷 (yìnshuā), meaning "to print", is a classic example of a verb-noun compound formed through semantic combination. The first character, 印 (yìn), originally depicting a hand pressing down on a kneeling person, carries the core meaning of "to stamp" or "impress a seal". The second character, 刷 (shuā), depicts a hand with a knife beside a door curtain, originally meaning "to brush" or "scrub", and here represents the brush-like tool or action used to apply ink. When combined, 印 conveys the action of making an impression, while 刷 specifies the method involving brushing or applying ink, together logically creating the modern concept of "printing" as the process of applying ink to a surface to produce impressions.