The word 赎金 is formed by combining two characters: 赎, which means "to redeem" or "to ransom", and 金, which means "money" or "gold". Together, they create a direct and logical concept where the first character describes the action or purpose (redeeming) and the second specifies the medium used for that action (money), thus forming the complete meaning of "ransom money", the sum paid to secure someone's release.