The Chinese word 腐败 (fǔbài), meaning corruption or decay, is formed by combining two characters: 腐, which depicts decay through its radical ⺼ (meat) and phonetic component 府, suggesting rot akin to spoiled meat, and 败, which conveys damage or loss via its radical 攵 (to strike) and component 貝 (wealth), implying ruin. Together, these characters semantically merge to express the concept of deterioration or corruption, literally from physical decay to moral or systemic rot.