The Chinese word 马铃薯 (mǎlíngshǔ) for "potato" is a compound term formed through descriptive analogy: the first character 马 (mǎ, "horse") likely serves a phonetic function from a historical or dialectal name, the second character 铃 (líng, "bell") visually describes the plant's tuberous shapes resembling small bells, and the final character 薯 (shǔ) categorizes it as a tuber or potato-like plant. Thus, the term essentially constructs the meaning "horse-bell tuber", picturing the potatoes as bell-shaped objects hanging from the roots, akin to bells on a horse’s harness.