The Chinese word **兆头 (zhàotou)** is a compound noun formed through the combination of two characters: **兆 (zhào)**, which historically means an "omen" or "sign" (often from divination), and **头 (tou)**, a common suffix that can nominalize a word, adding a sense of abstraction or indicating a matter or thing. Together, they create a single lexical unit meaning "portent," "sign of things to come," or "forewarning," where the suffix **头** transforms the core concept of an omen (**兆**) into a stand-alone, everyday noun referring to an observed phenomenon believed to predict future events.