The word 无私 (wúsī), meaning "selfless" or "unselfish", is a classical Chinese compound formed through a straightforward grammatical structure. It combines the negative prefix 无 (wú), meaning "without" or "lacking", with the noun 私 (sī), which means "selfishness", "personal interest", or "private". Therefore, the term is constructed via negation, where the absence (无) of selfish concern (私) directly yields the meaning of selflessness, prioritizing the collective or others over the self. This formation exemplifies a common pattern in Chinese vocabulary where an abstract quality is defined by the negation of its opposite.