The Chinese word 早起 (zǎoqǐ) is formed through the logical compounding of two independent characters: 早 (zǎo), meaning "early", and 起 (qǐ), meaning "to rise" or "to get up". When combined, they create a verb-object structure where "早" modifies the action "起", literally meaning "to rise early". This compound succinctly conveys the concept of waking up at an early hour in the morning, functioning as a standard descriptive phrase in modern Mandarin.