The word "握手" is formed through direct conceptual combination: the character 握 (wò) means "to grasp" or "to hold", and 手 (shǒu) means "hand". When placed together, they create a literal, visual compound meaning "grasp hand", which perfectly mirrors and names the physical action of a handshake. It is a straightforward, ideographic construction where the meaning of the whole is simply the sum of its visible parts, one hand actively taking hold of another.