The word "失望" is formed through a direct and vivid conceptual combination of its two component characters. The first character, "失", means to lose or to miss. The second character, "望", means hope, expectation, or to look into the distance. When combined, they create a powerful mental picture: the experience of one's hopes or expectations being lost, as if they have slipped from one's grasp or vanished from the horizon one was gazing toward. It is the metaphorical "loss of what was looked forward to" that forms the essence of this term for disappointment.