The Chinese word 气候 (qìhòu), meaning "climate", is a compound formed through the semantic combination of its two constituent characters: 气 (qì), which originally denotes "air", "vapor", or "atmospheric force", and 候 (hòu), which means "to wait", "to observe", or more specifically "seasonal time" or "period". Together, they conceptually merge to express the idea of "the periodic or seasonal patterns of the atmosphere", where 气 provides the material or dynamic element (the air/weather conditions) and 候 contributes the temporal or cyclical aspect (the enduring, observable phases over time). This formation is typical of many Chinese terms, where two meaningful morphemes are joined to create a new, more specific conceptual whole.