The word 厨子 (chúzi), meaning "cook" or "chef", is a compound formed through a straightforward and common morphological process in Chinese. It combines the morpheme 厨 (chú), which means "kitchen" or pertains to cooking, with the ubiquitous nominal suffix 子 (zi). This suffix, when added to certain nouns or verbs, often serves to denote a person associated with the root meaning, effectively turning "kitchen/cooking" into "a person of the kitchen". The formation follows a familiar "X + 子" pattern, where the suffix adds a professional or agentive role, making the term slightly more colloquial than the standard modern word for chef, 厨师 (chúshī).