The Chinese word 字典 (zìdiǎn), meaning "dictionary", is a compound word formed through semantic combination. The first character, 字 (zì), means "character" or "written word", while the second, 典 (diǎn), originally referred to "standard", "canon", or "authoritative reference work". Thus, the term literally means "character standard" or "standard for characters", aptly describing a book that provides the standard definitions, pronunciations, and usages of written Chinese characters. This formation reflects a classical method of creating new terms by logically combining existing meaningful characters to denote a specific, related concept.