The word 即使 is formed through the combination of two distinct characters, each contributing a conceptual piece to create a unified logical meaning. The first character, 即, originally depicted a person kneeling before food, conveying the core idea of immediacy, approach, or "even in the case of". The second character, 使, is composed of the radical for "person" (亻) and a component related to "order" or "dispatch", giving it the fundamental sense of "to cause" or "to employ". Their fusion creates a cohesive unit where 即 sets up an immediate or hypothetical circumstance, and 使 reinforces the notion of allowing or causing a subsequent action or state within that circumstance, thus forming the concessive conjunction meaning "even if".