The Chinese word **积累** is a compound formed by combining two synonymous characters, **积** (jī), meaning "to gather" or "to amass," and **累** (lěi), meaning "to pile up" or "to accumulate in layers." Together, they create a powerful, **semantically reinforcing** term where both components contribute to the core concept of gradual, incremental **accumulation over time**, whether referring to material wealth, knowledge, experience, or data. This formation follows a common pattern in Chinese morphology where two characters with similar meanings are paired to form a single, more nuanced and emphatic word, in this case perfectly capturing the process of steady, layered buildup.