The Chinese word **牲畜 (shēngchù)**, meaning "livestock" or "domestic animals," is a compound noun formed by combining two semantically related characters: **牲 (shēng)**, which historically refers to animals specifically bred for sacrifice or food (implying utility and domestication), and **畜 (chù)**, a general term for domesticated animals or beasts that are raised or kept. Together, they create a binome (a two-character word) where each character reinforces and narrows the meaning of the other, resulting in a term that specifically denotes animals raised by humans for agricultural purposes, such as labor, meat, or other products, effectively blending the concepts of "sacrificial/utilitarian animal" and "raised livestock" into a single, cohesive unit.