The Chinese word for Sirius, 天狼星 (Tiānlángxīng), is formed through a logical and culturally rooted compound structure: it combines 天 (tiān, meaning "sky" or "heaven"), 狼 (láng, meaning "wolf"), and 星 (xīng, meaning "star") to literally create "sky wolf star." This name directly translates the ancient Chinese astronomical observation and mythology, where the prominent, bright star was conceptually associated with a celestial wolf, often seen as an ominous invader from the heavens in historical star maps and texts, thus embedding both a descriptive and a mythological meaning into its linguistic formation.