The word "玩忽职守" is formed by combining the verb phrase 玩忽, meaning "to neglect or trifle with", derived from 玩 (to trifle) and 忽 (to overlook), with the noun 职守, meaning "duties or responsibilities", from 职 (duty) and 守 (to guard). The compound directly constructs the meaning of neglecting one's official duties through this syntactic pairing.