The word "或者" is formed through the combination of two classical Chinese components: the character "或", which in ancient usage carried the core meaning of "someone", "something", or "perhaps", conveying a sense of indefiniteness or alternative possibility; and the character "者", a nominalizing particle that turns a verb or description into "the one who/that which". When fused, the literal compositional sense is "that which is 'or'/the case of possibility", creating a single abstract term that grammatically presents an alternative, with the "者" suffix solidifying the preceding "或" into a fixed functional word for presenting choices.