The Chinese word 煤气 (méiqì) is a compound noun formed through semantic combination: the first character 煤 (méi) means "coal", and the second character 气 (qì) means "gas". It is a straightforward endocentric construction where the modifier "煤" specifies the source or primary historical material from which the gas is derived, resulting in the literal meaning "coal gas". While originally referring to manufactured gas derived from coal (town gas), the term's usage has expanded in modern contexts to commonly refer to domestic piped or bottled gas (often natural gas or liquefied petroleum gas), though the original compositional meaning remains transparent in the word's formation.