The Chinese word **畅销书 (chàngxiāoshū)**, meaning "bestseller," is a compound term formed through a straightforward modifier-head structure. It combines the verb phrase **畅销 (chàngxiāo)**, which means "to sell well" or "have a good sale," with the noun **书 (shū)**, meaning "book." Literally, it translates to "a book that sells well," where "畅销" acts as an attributive describing the type of "书." This formation follows a common Chinese linguistic pattern of creating new terms by specifying a key characteristic (high sales) for a general object (book), resulting in a efficient and semantically transparent label for a popular literary commodity; the term itself was adopted from the Japanese **暢銷書** in the early 20th century, following a similar compositional logic.