The word 妻子 is formed by combining two distinct characters, each carrying its own core meaning, to create a new, unified concept. The first character, 妻 (qī), explicitly means "wife". The second, 子 (zǐ), in this context does not function merely as a suffix but carries its classical meaning of "child" or "offspring". When joined, the compound historically and conceptually represented the dual roles of a woman in a traditional familial structure: the spouse (妻) who is also the mother of the children (子). Thus, the formation conceptually fuses "wife" and "mother" into a single term, though its modern usage has simplified to primarily mean "wife".