The Chinese word 经济 is formed by combining the character 经, which originally meant the warp threads in weaving and evolved to signify "to manage" or "to govern", with the character 济, meaning "to aid" or "to relieve". Together, these characters create a compound word that literally conveys "managing and aiding", historically referring to the administration of resources for public welfare, which in modern usage specifically denotes "economy" or "economics".