The word 明晚 is formed by the direct combination of two independent characters, each contributing its core meaning to create a new, composite concept. The first character, 明 (míng), originally depicts the sun (日) and moon (月) together to convey "bright" or "light", and by extension, "next" (as in the next dawn, thus "tomorrow"). The second character, 晚 (wǎn), is composed of 日 (sun) and 免 (which historically suggested a bending or declining shape), together evoking the image of the sun declining, meaning "evening" or "night". Thus, 明晚 is a conceptual fusion where 明 specifies "tomorrow" and 晚 specifies "evening", resulting in the combined meaning of "tomorrow night".