The Chinese term 股份 (gǔfèn), meaning "share" or "stock" in a company, is a coordinative compound formed by combining two semantically related characters: 股 (gǔ), which historically means "thigh" but metaphorically evolved to mean a "section" or "share" (akin to a branch or strand), and 份 (fèn), which means "portion" or "part". Together, they create a meaning that is more specific than either character alone, essentially "a portioned share", perfectly capturing the concept of divided ownership equity in a business entity.