The word 早上 is formed by combining two characters: 早 (zǎo), which means "early", and 上 (shàng), which in this context denotes "the early part of" or "the beginning period of". When joined, they create a composite meaning that conceptually points to "the early part of the day", specifically the morning hours. It is a direct, literal construction where the second character specifies the timeframe within which the quality of the first character applies.