The Chinese word 大象 (dàxiàng, meaning "elephant") is formed through a straightforward descriptive process. It combines the character 大 (dà), meaning "big" or "large", with the character 象 (xiàng), which itself originally meant "elephant" based on its earliest pictographic form depicting the animal's shape with a long trunk. Therefore, the compound 大象 essentially functions as a reinforcing or clarifying description, literally translating to "big elephant", to distinctly denote the animal by its most prominent and characteristic feature.