The word 幽默 (yōumò) is a modern Chinese term created as a phonetic and semantic loan from the English word "humor". It was ingeniously formed by the writer and linguist Lin Yutang in the 1920s, who selected two existing Chinese characters that approximate the sound of "humor" while simultaneously conveying a profound, culturally resonant meaning. The characters 幽 (yōu), suggesting "quiet, subtle, or profound", and 默 (mò), meaning "silent" or "to remain quiet", together evoke the idea of a subtle, intelligent, and quietly expressed wit, a sophisticated and indirect form of comedy that resonated with traditional Chinese literary aesthetics, thus perfectly capturing the spirit of the Western concept it translates.