The Chinese word **孔雀** (kǒngquè), meaning "peacock," is a **compound word formed through semantic combination**. It is not a phonetic borrowing. The first character, **孔** (kǒng), originally meant "aperture" but by extension carries connotations of "great," "grand," or "very." The second character, **雀** (què), generically means "sparrow" or "small bird." When combined, the term essentially denotes a "great bird" or "grand bird," which aptly describes the peacock's large size and magnificent appearance compared to common small birds, showcasing a classical Chinese lexical pattern where two meaningful characters merge to create a new, descriptive concept.