The Chinese word **儿科 (érkē)**, meaning "pediatrics," is a compound formed through semantic combination, where two independent characters, each with their own meaning, are joined to create a specific term. The first character, **儿 (ér)**, means "child" or "infant," and the second character, **科 (kē)**, means "branch (of study)" or "department." When combined, they logically signify the "department/branch of medicine for children," following a common pattern in Chinese terminology where a subject (儿) is modified by a categorical field (科), similar to words like 文科 (wénkē, humanities) or 理科 (lǐkē, sciences).