The word **大猩猩** (dàxīngxing, meaning "gorilla") is formed through a combination of morphological processes in Chinese: it begins with the adjective **大** (dà, "big") which modifies the reduplicated base **猩猩** (xīngxing, a historical binome for "ape" or "gibbon"), thereby creating a specific compound noun that literally means "big ape" to distinctly denote the larger gorilla as opposed to other primates. This structure follows a common pattern in Chinese where a descriptive attribute is prefixed to a general category name to form a new, more specific term.