The Chinese word "前夫" is formed by directly combining the character "前", meaning "former" or "before", with the character "夫", meaning "husband". This pairing creates a compound where "前" inherently modifies "夫" to convey the sense of a past marital relationship, resulting in a term that literally translates to "former husband" and refers to a man who was previously married but is no longer due to divorce or separation. The formation relies solely on the semantic contribution of each character, without requiring elaborate structural explanations.