The Chinese word 瀑布 (pùbù), meaning "waterfall", is a semantically transparent compound formed by combining two characters: 瀑 (pù), which signifies a "torrent" or "heavy downpour" of water, and 布 (bù), meaning "cloth" or "to spread out". Together, they create a vivid conceptual image of a "spreading cloth of torrential water", poetically capturing the visual essence of a waterfall where water cascades and fans out over a cliff. This formation is a classic example of how Chinese compounds often merge meaningful components to generate a new, descriptive term that is intuitively understandable from its parts.