The Chinese word 婚约 (hūnyuē), meaning "marriage contract" or "engagement," is a compound word formed through the combination of two meaningful characters: 婚 (hūn), which means "marriage" or "wedding," and 约 (yuē), which means "agreement," "appointment," or "contract." This formation follows a common grammatical pattern in Mandarin known as a "modifier-head" or "coordinative" compound, where both elements contribute semantically to create a new, specific concept—in this case, an agreement specifically related to marriage. The word is not a phonetic borrowing but a logical semantic construct, directly reflecting its literal meaning as a "marriage pact."