The word 失常 is formed through the direct, conceptual combination of its two component characters: 失 (shī), meaning "to lose" or "to be deprived of", and 常 (cháng), meaning "normalcy", "regularity", or "the usual state". It is constructed by placing the action or state of "losing" before the object that is lost, "normalcy", to instantly convey the core idea of a departure from the standard or expected condition, literally, "to lose normalcy".