The word 成员 is formed by combining two characters: 成, which carries meanings of "to become", "to complete", or "established", and 员, which means "person" or "member". Together, they conceptually merge to denote a "completed person" within a group, or more precisely, an individual who has been formed into or constitutes part of a whole body, thus meaning "member" (as of a team or organization). This formation directly illustrates how the completed state (成) of an individual person (员) within a collective creates the idea of membership.