The word "颈椎" is formed by combining the character "颈", meaning neck, which uses the radical "頁" to associate it with the head or neck region and the phonetic component "巠" to suggest its pronunciation, with the character "椎", meaning vertebra, which uses the radical "木" due to a historical perception of vertebrae resembling wooden segments and the phonetic component "隹" to indicate its sound; together, they create a compound word where "颈" specifies the neck area and "椎" specifies the vertebral bones, thus directly referring to the cervical vertebrae.