The word 否极泰来 is formed by sequentially combining four characters: 否 (pǐ, meaning "bad" or "misfortune") and 极 (jí, meaning "extreme") to convey "misfortune reaching its peak", directly followed by 泰 (tài, meaning "peace" or "good fortune") and 来 (lái, meaning "come") to convey "good fortune arrives", creating a compound where the first two characters establish a negative extremity that logically precedes the positive outcome denoted by the last two.