The word "灾殃" is formed by combining the characters "灾" and "殃". "灾" is a pictographic character originally depicting a fire under a roof, symbolizing a household fire or disaster. "殃" is a phono-semantic compound with the radical "歹", denoting death or bad fortune, and the phonetic component "央", indicating pronunciation. Together, they form a compound word where both characters contribute semantically to emphasize the meaning of calamity or misfortune.