The word 营养 (yíngyǎng), meaning "nutrition", is formed through the conceptual combination of its two component characters. The first character, 营 (yíng), carries historical connotations of "to manage", "to operate", or "to seek", implying a process or a system. The second, 养 (yǎng), means "to nourish", "to rear", or "to cultivate". When combined, they create a holistic concept where 营 provides the sense of a sustained, operational process, and 养 provides the core action of nurturing; together, they semantically fuse to mean the systematic sustenance and nourishment required for life and growth.