About
The compound word 奉陪 is formed through the combination of two distinct characters, each contributing its core meaning to create a new, figurative whole. The first character, 奉 (fèng), originally meant "to offer or present with respect", carrying a connotation of deference and politeness. The second character, 陪 (péi), means "to accompany" or "to keep someone company". When combined, the literal sense is "to respectfully accompany", but its modern usage has evolved into a fixed, polite expression meaning "to keep someone company" in a specific activity, often used in social contexts to accept a challenge or an invitation graciously, as in "I'll be happy to join you" or "I'll take you up on that". The formation thus exemplifies how Chinese compounds often merge semantic elements to produce nuanced, culturally embedded phrases.