About
The Chinese word 善意 is a compound formed through the combination of two independent morphemes: 善, meaning "good" or "benevolent", and 意, meaning "intention", "meaning", or "mind". It follows a common grammatical structure in Mandarin where an adjective (善) modifies a noun (意) to create a new, abstract noun. Thus, the literal "good intention" semantically blends to convey the concept of "goodwill", "benevolence", or "kindness", referring to a positive and well-meaning disposition behind an action or remark. This morphological process is typical in Chinese, where precise meaning is built from the logical pairing of meaningful characters.