The word 化学 (huàxué, "chemistry") is formed by combining two existing characters: 化, which carries the core meaning of "change" or "transformation", and 学, which means "study" or "learning". The concept was constructed in the 19th century as a modern scientific term by conceptually merging these ideas to mean "the study of transformation", specifically the transformation of matter, directly translating and embodying the essence of the Western scientific discipline into the Chinese linguistic framework.