The Chinese word 旅客 (lǚkè) is a compound noun formed by combining two meaningful characters: 旅 (lǗ), which means "travel" or "journey", and 客 (kè), which means "guest" or "visitor". Together, they create a semantic compound where the first element, 旅, modifies and specifies the type of 客, resulting in the combined meaning of "traveling guest" or, more naturally, "passenger" or "traveler". This structure follows a common pattern in Mandarin where two independent morphemes are joined to form a new, logical concept that is directly related to the sum of its parts.