The word 贱货 is formed by combining two characters: 贱, which conveys a sense of being lowly, cheap, or despicable in value or character, and 货, which literally means "goods" or "merchandise". The term is constructed metaphorically to dehumanize a person by conceptually reducing them to a commodity that is considered morally and socially worthless, thereby fusing the idea of contemptible character with the objectifying notion of a disposable object.