The word 神秘 is formed by combining two characters: 神 (shén), which originally refers to gods, deities, or the divine, carrying a sense of the supernatural and unknowable; and 秘 (mì), which means secret, concealed, or beyond understanding. Together, they conceptually merge to evoke the quality of something being profoundly hidden, unknowable, and awe-inspiring, like the secret workings of the divine or the enigmatic aura surrounding the supernatural. The formation is not merely additive but creates a new, cohesive idea where the "secret" aspect intensifies the elusive and profound nature of the "divine", resulting in the meaning of "mysterious".