The Chinese word "上市" (shàngshì) is a verb-object compound formed by combining the character "上" (shàng), meaning "to go up" or "to ascend", with the character "市" (shì), meaning "market". Literally, it describes the action of "going to the market". In modern economic and financial terminology, this literal sense is used metaphorically to specifically mean "to go public" or "to be listed on a stock exchange", where a company's shares are offered for public trading on the formal "market" of a stock exchange. Thus, the formation leverages a concrete spatial action to express a complex abstract business process.