The word 车厢 is formed by combining two meaningful characters into a single conceptual unit. The first character, 车 (chē), means "vehicle" or "car", establishing the general category. The second character, 厢 (xiāng), originally refers to a compartment, side-room, or box-like enclosure. When combined, the meaning is not merely additive but creates a specific, integrated concept: the "carriage" or "passenger compartment" of the vehicle, the box-like part where people or goods are carried. It is a logical, semantic compound where the first element provides the context and the second specifies the particular part or type.