The word 野兽 is formed by combining two characters, each contributing a core idea to create a unified concept. The first character, 野 (yě), carries the fundamental meaning of "wild", "untamed", or "of the open country". The second character, 兽 (shòu), intrinsically means "beast" or "animal". Their combination is not merely additive but fuses these ideas: 野 acts as an attributive descriptor that directly modifies and intensifies 兽, conceptually filtering the general category of "beast" to specifically denote those that are undomesticated, fierce, and inhabit the wilderness, thus yielding the complete and vivid notion of a "wild beast".