The word 持续 is formed through the logical combination of two meaningful characters: 持, which means "to hold" or "to maintain", and 续, which means "to continue" or "to extend". Their conceptual fusion creates a compound where the action of holding or maintaining (持) is directly applied to the process of continuation (续), thereby picturing a state or action that is actively kept going without interruption. It is the semantic marriage of "maintain" and "continue" that directly yields the core meaning of "to be sustained" or "to be continuous".