The word 总是 is formed through the compounding of two individual characters, each contributing its core meaning to create a new, unified concept. The character 总 carries ideas of "always", "general", or "overall", implying a sense of totality or consistency. It is combined with 是, which fundamentally means "is" or "to be", signifying existence or a state of being. Their fusion creates a single lexical unit where the "general totality" of 总 modifies and intensifies the "state of being" of 是, resulting in the combined meaning of "always being the case" or "invariably so", expressing a sense of habitual constancy.