The word "箴言" is formed by combining the character "箴", which means to admonish or warn, and "言", which means speech or words. "箴" is a pictophonetic character composed of the bamboo radical "竹", historically associated with writing on bamboo slips, and the phonetic component "咸" indicating pronunciation. "言" is a pictograph originally depicting a mouth or tongue to represent speech. Together, they create a compound word where "箴" modifies "言" to literally mean "admonitory words", specifically referring to maxims or proverbs.