The Chinese word "伺候" (cìhou) is a compound verb formed through the combination of two semantically related characters: "伺", which originally means to observe, watch, or wait for an opportunity, and "候", which means to wait, attend, or serve. Together, they undergo a process of lexicalization, where their individual meanings fuse to create a new, specific meaning, "to serve", "to attend to", or "to wait upon" someone, often implying a sense of careful, patient, and sometimes subservient attention. This formation follows a common pattern in Chinese where two near-synonyms or related-action verbs are joined to express a more precise or nuanced concept.