The compound word 故乡 (gùxiāng), meaning "hometown" or "native place", is formed by combining two meaningful characters: 故 (gù), which carries connotations of "old", "former", or "past", and 乡 (xiāng), which means "village", "countryside", or "native region". Together, they create a concept that is more nuanced than the sum of its parts, poetically evoking not just a geographical location but one's "old home" or "place of origin", the familiar landscape of the past that holds personal and emotional significance. This formation is a classic example of a coordinative compound in Chinese, where two semantic elements merge to express a single, enriched idea.