The word 猩猩 (xīngxing, meaning "orangutan") is formed through a process of full reduplication, where the single character 猩 is repeated to create a disyllabic noun. This character originally carried an archaic, possibly onomatopoeic, association with sound or animal cries. In Classical Chinese, 猩 alone could refer to a dog or an animal's cry, but through semantic evolution and the stabilizing effect of reduplication, a common pattern in Chinese for forming animal and plant names (e.g., 狒狒 "baboon"), the duplicated form 猩猩 became lexicalized to specifically denote the great ape, emphasizing its distinctive call or character.