The word 野蛮 is formed by combining two characters, each contributing a layer of meaning to create a unified concept. The first character, 野 (yě), originally means "field" or "wilderness", evoking what is uncultivated, outside of civilized society, and untamed. The second, 蛮 (mán), historically referred to "southern barbarians" in ancient Chinese texts, carrying a connotation of crude, fierce, and uncivilized behavior. When fused, 野蛮 conceptually marries the raw, natural wildness of 野 with the culturally perceived brutishness and lack of refinement of 蛮, resulting in the modern meaning of "savage", "barbaric", or "uncivilized", describing a state of brute force and absence of civilized manners.