The Chinese word 遭殃 (zāoyāng) is a compound verb formed by combining two meaningful characters: 遭 (zāo), which means "to encounter" or "to suffer," and 殃 (yāng), which means "disaster," "calamity," or "misfortune." Together, they create a single lexical unit that literally means "to encounter disaster" or "to suffer calamity." This formation follows a common pattern in Chinese where a verb (遭) indicating an action is paired with a noun (殃) that serves as its object, resulting in a word that describes the experience of that negative event. Thus, 遭殃 is typically used to describe a person or group being afflicted by a serious misfortune or becoming the victim of a tragic situation.