The word 信息 (xìnxī) is formed by combining two meaningful characters: 信, which carries the core ideas of a "message", "trust", or "something truthful to be believed", and 息, which means "news", "breath", or "that which grows and rests". Together, they create a conceptual compound where 信 provides the notion of a reliable communication, and 息 adds the dimension of living news or intelligence that flows and disseminates. Thus, the term conceptually fuses "a trustworthy message" with "active news" to arrive at the modern meaning of "information".