The Chinese word 挨饿 (ái'è), meaning "to go hungry" or "to starve", is a verb-object compound formed by combining the verb 挨 (ái), which carries the meaning of "to endure" or "to suffer through", with the object 饿 (è), which means "hunger". Literally, the construction means "to endure hunger", where the first character denotes the action of suffering and the second character specifies the nature of that suffering. This type of formation is common in Chinese, where two meaningful characters (morphemes) are combined to create a new, specific concept that is semantically transparent from its parts.