The term **植物人** (zhíwùrén), meaning "vegetative state patient," is a semantically transparent compound formed by combining **植物** (zhíwù), meaning "plant," with **人** (rén), meaning "person." It is a metaphor-based calque, likely influenced by the English medical term "vegetative state," where a person in a coma with minimal brain function is descriptively compared to a plant—alive in a biological sense but lacking consciousness, mobility, or responsiveness, much like vegetation. The word's formation thus directly conveys its meaning through this vivid analogy, fitting the common Chinese pattern of creating new terms by combining existing, meaningful morphemes.