The word 苍白 is formed through the conceptual blending of its two component characters: 苍, which conveys a greyish-blue or ashen hue often associated with the distant, desolate sky or fading vegetation, and 白, meaning the color white. Their combination does not simply add one color to another, but rather merges their inherent qualities to evoke a specific, unified impression. The result is a compound that conceptually represents a pallid, lifeless, or bloodless shade of white, like the complexion of someone who is ill or frightened, thereby extending metaphorically to describe anything lacking vitality, vigor, or convincing force.