The Chinese word 跳蚤 (tiàozǎo), meaning "flea," is a compound word formed through semantic combination, where each character contributes to the overall meaning. The first character, 跳 (tiào), means "to jump," describing the insect's primary and most noticeable action. The second character, 蚤 (zǎo), is an archaic, standalone word for "flea." Therefore, the compound literally translates to "jumping flea," where 跳 acts as a descriptive modifier specifying the defining characteristic of the 蚤, creating a vivid and logical compound common in Chinese morphological construction.