The character "决定" is formed through the semantic combination of two individual characters: "决", which originally depicted water bursting through a dike, conveying a sense of decisive breakthrough or judgment, and "定", which depicts a roof over stability, meaning to settle or fix. Together, they create a compound where "决" provides the core idea of making a definitive judgment or resolution, and "定" reinforces this by adding the notion of finalizing and settling that judgment into a fixed outcome, thus together representing the concept of "to decide" or "a decision".