The Chinese word for dice, **骰子** (tóuzi), is a compound noun formed through both semantic and grammatical construction. The first character, **骰**, is itself a pictophonetic compound where the radical **骨** (gǔ, meaning "bone") indicates the historical material from which dice were often made, while the component **殳** (shū, originally depicting a hand holding a weapon or tool) likely serves as a phonetic hint or possibly an associative element related to throwing or striking. The second character, **子** (zi), is a very common nominal suffix in Chinese that often denotes a small object or tool, turning the root "骰" into a concrete, everyday noun. Thus, the complete word literally and historically conveys the idea of "a small bone object for throwing."