The word "窒息" is formed through the direct and vivid combination of two conceptual images: the first character, 窒, means "to stop up" or "to obstruct", and the second character, 息, means "breath" or "to breathe". When placed together, they create a powerful compound that literally depicts "blocked breath", immediately conveying the physical sensation and life-threatening state of suffocation or asphyxiation through this concrete, cause-and-effect pictorial logic.