The word 商品 (shāngpǐn, meaning "commodity" or "goods") is formed by combining two meaningful characters. The first, 商 (shāng), carries the core idea of "commerce", "trade", or "merchant". The second, 品 (pǐn), means "article", "product", or "item". Conceptually, they are joined in a straightforward, logical way where the second character specifies the type of object and the first character defines its fundamental purpose or context. Thus, a 品 that is specifically for 商, an article for trade, naturally forms the compound meaning of a "commercial good".