The Chinese word 月经 (yuèjīng), meaning "menstruation", is a compound term formed through semantic combination: the character 月 (yuè) means "month" or "moon", referring to the monthly cycle, and 经 (jīng) means "to pass through", "regular course", or "classic", here conveying the idea of a regular cyclical flow. Together, they literally construct the concept of the "monthly passage" or "monthly cycle", directly and euphemistically describing the physiological process.