The Chinese word 忧伤 (yōushāng), meaning "sorrowful" or "melancholy", is a compound formed through the combination of two semantically related characters: 忧 (yōu), which means "worry" or "sorrow", and 伤 (shāng), which means "hurt", "wound", or "grief". This structure follows a common pattern in Chinese where two characters with similar or reinforcing meanings are paired to create a single, more nuanced abstract noun or adjective. The fusion amplifies the emotional weight, with 忧 providing the core sense of inward sadness and 伤 adding the dimension of painful, heartache-like injury, resulting in a poetic and layered expression for a state of deep, pensive sadness.