The word "大丈夫" is formed from three characters: 大 (dà), meaning "big" or "great", 丈 (zhàng), which historically denotes a measure of a man's stature or adulthood, and 夫 (fū), meaning "man" or "husband". The compound 丈夫 itself means "man", so adding 大 as a modifier creates the literal meaning "great man", emphasizing qualities like strength and moral integrity through the direct combination of these characters' meanings.