The word "黄牛" is formed by combining the character "黄" (huáng), meaning "yellow", with "牛" (niú), meaning "ox" or "cattle", to literally refer to a yellow ox. Through semantic shift, this concrete term was later applied metaphorically to describe ticket scalpers, drawing an analogy to the stubborn or herd-like behavior of cattle in markets, where scalpers similarly resell tickets in crowded venues.