The word **惊恐** is formed through a common Chinese morphological process called **lexical compounding**, where two independent, semantically similar characters are combined to create a nuanced, unified meaning. The first character, **惊 (jīng)**, conveys "alarm," "surprise," or "fright," while the second, **恐 (kǒng)**, means "fear" or "dread." Together, they form a **synonymous compound** where the meanings reinforce each other, resulting in a more intense and specific term for "terror" or "panic" that captures both the initial shock (惊) and the ensuing profound fear (恐).