The word "联邦" (liánbāng) is formed by combining two meaningful characters: "联" (lián), which conveys the idea of connecting, uniting, or allying, and "邦" (bāng), which means state, nation, or country. Together, they conceptually fuse to create the meaning of "a union of states" or "federation", where the first character describes the action or nature of the bond, and the second character specifies the entities being bound. This formation is not arbitrary but follows a classical Chinese pattern of concept-building, where the term emerged in the late Qing or early Republican era as a direct translation and conceptual borrowing for foreign political structures like the United States, encapsulating the idea of sovereign units voluntarily joined under a central government.