The Chinese word **杆菌 (gǎnjūn)**, meaning "bacillus" or "rod-shaped bacterium," is a compound formed by combining two meaningful characters: **杆 (gǎn)**, which means "rod" or "stick," and **菌 (jūn)**, which means "bacterium" or "fungus." It is a descriptive, morphological term where the first character **杆** acts as a modifier describing the shape, and the second character **菌** is the root noun specifying the category; thus, the word literally translates to "rod-shaped bacterium," effectively creating a precise scientific term through semantic compounding.