The word 忙活 (mánghuo) is formed through the common Chinese morphological process of compounding, specifically combining the adjective 忙 (máng), meaning "busy," with the noun 活 (huó), meaning "work" or "task." This creates a verb-object (V-O) structure that literally means "to busy oneself with work." The compound semantically extends beyond its parts to convey the active, often somewhat hurried or hands-on, engagement in tasks or labor, functioning as a dynamic verb that implies both the state of being busy and the concrete action of doing the work itself.