The Chinese word **告辞 (gàocí)**, meaning "to take one's leave" or "to say goodbye," is a compound word formed through the combination of two meaningful characters: **告 (gào)**, which means "to tell" or "to inform," and **辞 (cí)**, which in this context means "to take leave" or "words of departure." Together, they create a verb that literally conveys the act of "informing (someone) of one's departure," a polite and formal expression rooted in classical Chinese etiquette where announcing one's exit was a ritual of respect. Its formation follows the common syntactic pattern in Chinese where two verbs or semantic elements are joined to express a more specific, nuanced action.