The Chinese word **肺炎** (fèiyán), meaning "pneumonia," is a straightforward compound formed by combining two characters: **肺** (fèi), which means "lung," and **炎** (yán), which means "inflammation" or "-itis." This follows the common and logical Chinese morphological pattern where a specific noun is modified by a condition or state, creating a precise medical term that literally translates to "lung inflammation." The formation is purely semantic, with each character retaining its core meaning to produce a new, transparent compound word.