The Chinese word **腐蚀** is a compound word formed by combining two characters, each with related meanings, to create a more specific and nuanced concept. The first character, **腐 (fǔ)**, primarily means "to decay" or "rot," often associated with organic material breaking down. The second character, **蚀 (shí)**, means "to erode," "corrode," or "wear away," commonly used for processes like rusting or erosion. When combined, **腐蚀** synthesizes these ideas into a single term that broadly means "to corrode" or "to corrupt," encompassing both the physical chemical process (like metal corrosion) and the abstract, moral decay of a person or system, thus illustrating how Chinese often creates words by pairing semantically complementary characters.