The word **瘸子 (quézi)**, meaning "a lame person" or "cripple," is formed through a common Mandarin morphological process where the descriptive morpheme **瘸 (qué)**, meaning "lame" or "crippled," is combined with the nominalizing suffix **子 (zi)**, which attaches to adjectives or verbs to form nouns that typically refer to a person characterized by that trait. This structure follows the pattern of **Adjectival Root + 子**, creating a concrete noun that identifies an individual by a prominent physical or behavioral attribute, similar to words like 瞎子 (xiāzi, blind person) or 胖子 (pàngzi, fat person). Thus, 瘸子 literally translates to "one who is lame."