The word 桌子 is formed through a process of semantic extension and suffixation. The core character, 桌, originally functioned as a standalone noun meaning "table" or "desk", derived from pictographic or ideographic roots suggesting a raised, flat surface. The addition of the character 子, a very common and often semantically empty suffix in Chinese, serves not to change the core meaning but to create a more concrete, familiar, or colloquial two-syllable noun form. This combination results in a word where the first character carries the primary meaning and the second character acts as a grammatical particle that completes and nominalizes it, making it a standard, everyday term for "table".