The Chinese word **含糊 (hánhu)** is a disyllabic compound formed through the combination of two semantically related characters: **含 (hán)**, which originally means "to hold in the mouth" or "to contain," and **糊 (hú)**, which means "paste," "muddled," or "confused." Together, they create a metaphorical meaning where "holding something unclearly in the mouth" extends to describe speech or attitude that is **ambiguous, vague, or non-committal**. This formation follows a common pattern in Chinese where two characters with complementary meanings merge to express a more abstract, often figurative, concept that is not directly literal.