The Chinese word 贫困 (pínkùn), meaning "poverty" or "impoverished", is a compound word formed by combining two independent, synonymous characters. The first character, 贫 (pín), primarily conveys the concept of being "poor" or lacking material wealth. The second character, 困 (kùn), carries meanings of being "destitute", "in difficulty", or "trapped" in a strained situation. Together, they create a parallel or complementary compound, where both morphemes reinforce and expand upon a shared semantic field of severe financial hardship and privation, resulting in a term whose meaning is more nuanced and emphatic than either character alone.